Potentiation of the Antitumour Effect of Cisplatin by Administering Local Electrical Pulses to Metastatic Lesions of Hamster Oral Fibrosarcoma

Abstract

Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is currently receiving much attention as a method that can enhance the delivery of antitumour drugs into tumour cells by electroporation. In this study, we examined the effect of cisplatin on metastatic lesions of hamster oral fibrosarcoma by administering it in association with low-voltage electrical pulses. Oral fibrosarcoma was transplanted submucosally into the cheek pouches of 80 hamsters. After transplantation, when the diameter of the metastatic lesion in the left submandibular lymph node had reached 100 mm³, the hamsters were divided into four groups: D+E+ group (cisplatin treatment followed by electroporation; D+E- group (cisplatin treatment); D-E+ group (electroporation without cisplatin treatment); and D-E- group (no treatment). The antitumour effect of cisplatin was marked in the D+E+ group and the metastatic lesion disappeared in some of the animals. These results showed that when ECT consisting of cisplatin plus low-voltage electroporation was applied to metastatic tumour lesions, the antitumour 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 metastatic tumours.