Study on Antitumor Effect of Bleomycin by Electrochemotherapy using Electric Pulses on the Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is one of the treatment that can enhance the local delivery of antitumor drugs with the application of electric pulses. However the therapy for the treatment are not standardized yet. In this article we evaluated the capability of ECT to allow the use of bleomycin (BLM) on squamous cell carcinoma by administering it in association with low-voltage electrical pulses. Squamous cell carcinoma was transplanted to the nude mice. After transplantation, the mice were treated with ECT for transplanted tumor lesions. The antitumor effect of BLM was marked in the D+E+ group (BLM treatment followed by electroporation) and the tumor lesion disappeared in some of the animals. These results suggested that when ECT consisting of BLM plus low-voltage electroporation was applied to tumor lesions, the antitumor effect of the drug on the lesions was enhanced. Therefore, ECT would seem to be a highly-safe new method that may be of use in the treatment of tumors.