10 Feb 2025Article
Electrochemotherapy for Cancers Affecting the Skin: Ten Years of Experience in a Tertiary Referral Hospital
Piero Covarelli 1Carlo Boselli 1Francesco Barberini 1Matteo Matteucci 2Georgi Popivanov 3Vincenzo Giorgi 4Gianmarco Tomassini 1Mario Mandalà 1Roberto Cirocchi 1
Affiliations
Article Info
1 Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Perugia, 06132 Perugia, Italy
2 Department of General Surgery, University of Milano, 20122 Milan, Italy
3 Department of Surgery, Military Medical Academy, 1606 Sofia, Bulgaria
4 Department of Dermatology, University of Florence, 50124 Florence, Italy
Published: 10 Feb 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Surgical Management of Melanoma and Skin Cancer: Updates on Surgical Strategies and their Effectiveness)
Copyright © 2025 The Author(s).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
AIM: Electrochemotherapy (ECT) combines chemotherapy with an electric pulse to directly target tumor cells by increasing cell membrane permeability, facilitating the efficient uptake of chemotherapeutic agents by tumor cells and improving their therapeutic efficacy. It is widely used for treating skin metastatic nodules or metastases of subcutaneous tissue. Therefore, the aim of this study is to report the experience regarding the use of ECT in a tertiary referral hospital and explore its safety and efficacy in treating skin cancer. METHODS: This study included 97 skin cancer patients treated with ECT at the Surgical Oncological Unit of the University of Perugia, Italy, between 2013 and 2024. ECT was performed using the Cliniporator® device (model EP02, IGEA, Carpi, Italy). The individuals with life expectancy greater than three months and American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status classification of I–III were included in this study, while those with arrhythmia and allergies to bleomycin were excluded. RESULTS: In this study, melanoma was the most frequently observed malignancy, accounting for 47.4% of all cases. A total of 46 melanoma patients aged between 42 and 93 years underwent ECT treatment. Most of these patients presented with in-transit metastases (67.4%) and often had multiple lesions (71.74%). Furthermore, 21 patients received only one session, while 25 underwent multiple sessions. Almost all procedures were performed with intravenous administration of bleomycin. However, in two cases, intralesional cisplatin was used for a recurrence of melanoma localized in the scalp. Notably, no adverse events were observed during ECT procedure. Moreover, most of the patients (70.45%) were alive one year after the first ECT session. The 5-year probability of survival was 24% after the first ECT session. CONCLUSIONS: Electrochemotherapy represents a safe and effective therapeutic strategy for various malignancies, with significant potential for future clinical applications.
Keywords
- electrochemotherapy
- melanoma
- Non-Melanoma Skin Cancers
- skin cancer