Abstract
Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is emerging as a new minimally invasive ablation technique for the treatment of a variety of malignant tumors, which has unique aspects that differ from those of conventional ablation therapies such as radiofrequency ablation or cryotherapy. Electroporation means the formation of nanoscale pores in the cell membrane when certain electric fields are applied across the cell. This phenomenon can be reversible or irreversible according to the strength of the electric field. This non-thermal ablation provides entire tumor cell death preserving the surrounding important structures, such as vessels, bile ducts, and nerves. Tissue regeneration speed after the treatment is considerably faster than that of other ablation techniques. IRE could have potential advantages compared with thermal ablative modalities. Various tumors including liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, prostatic cancer and so on may be included in the application. Short-term treatment outcome is satisfactory and continued exploration is needed in human tumors.
