Group: Deep Organ Tumours
Breast Cancer
Chest wall recurrences and skin metastases of breast cancer are among the most extensively studied indications for electrochemotherapy. These lesions often develop in irradiated tissue and may bleed and be malodorous; the method's local control and haemostatic effect can be decisive for quality of life.
120total publications
49clinical publications
53preclinical publications
7reviews
1991–2026publication span
Clinical publications: randomized, prospective and retrospective studies, case series and case reports. Preclinical publications: animal, in vitro, modelling and experimental biophysics studies.
Literature Status by Method
Publication count, clinical and preclinical split, literature maturity and publication span for each clinical method. The badge at the top of the page summarises the ECT record only; the full split by method is here.
Electrochemotherapy (ECT)
87publications
45clinical publications
26preclinical publications
Early clinical literaturethreshold 11/87
Validated records entering the maturity calculation: 11 (clinical 6, preclinical 2), 13% of the records for this method.
1991–2026
Irreversible electroporation (IRE)
8publications
0clinical publications
7preclinical publications
Exploratory literaturethreshold 1/8
Validated records entering the maturity calculation: 1 (clinical 0, preclinical 1), 12% of the records for this method.
2009–2022
Calcium electroporation
3publications
1clinical publication
2preclinical publications
Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/3
No record for this method entered the maturity calculation; the records are marked in the validation ledger as conflicting, insufficient or out of scope.
2019–2025
Gene electrotransfer
7publications
0clinical publications
7preclinical publications
Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/7
No record for this method entered the maturity calculation; the records are marked in the validation ledger as conflicting, insufficient or out of scope.
2007–2020
Other electroporation applications
15publications
3clinical publications
11preclinical publications
This set does not name a single clinical method; no literature maturity is assigned.
2000–2026
Mechanisms Mentioned in Abstracts
Mechanism names are detected by automatic matching over publication abstracts; the figure is the number of publications containing the name. A mention does not mean the mechanism was demonstrated in that study.
Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation 30
Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation 21
Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation 17
Optimisation of Pulse Parameters 13
Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability 12
Apoptosis Induction 12
Electric Field Distribution and Modelling 11
Electrode Geometry and Placement 10
Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death 10
Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA) 9
Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Oxidative Stress 9
Necrosis and Necroptosis 9
Study Type Distribution
Bar length is scaled to the most common study type; the percentage gives the share of the whole area. Colour marks the study-type band, on the same scale as the literature map.
| Study type | Publications | Share within this area |
|---|---|---|
| Randomized Clinical Trial | 1 | <1% |
| Prospective Clinical Study | 6 | 5% |
| Clinical Study | 26 | 22% |
| Retrospective Clinical Study | 4 | 3% |
| Case Series | 1 | <1% |
| Case Report | 11 | 9% |
| Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis | 1 | <1% |
| Review | 6 | 5% |
| Animal Study | 23 | 19% |
| In Vitro Study | 29 | 24% |
| In Silico / Modelling | 1 | <1% |
| Editorial / Letter | 4 | 3% |
| Correction / Erratum | 3 | 2% |
| Not reported | 3 | 2% |
| Protocol | 1 | <1% |
Literature Evidence Table
120 publications listed in order of evidence strength. Click a title to open the citation, mechanism and full abstract drawer.
The study type, model and mechanism columns are assigned automatically and can be wrong for individual records; the abstract column is taken either from the publication's own abstract or from the opening text of the source PDF. The labels are there for scanning and filtering, not as record-level verified data; consult the full text before acting on any single publication. The classification rules and known errors are on the Literature Map.
| Regime | Publication | Year | Study type | Model | Mechanism | Abstract |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ECT | Tahvildari et al · Int J Cancer Manag | 2025 | Randomized Clinical Trial | Human | Muscle Contraction and Anaesthesia Requirement, Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | Background: Skin metastases occur in 5% - 30% of breast cancer patients, highlighting the need for effective treatments. Electrochemotherapy, which combines electric pulses with chemotherapy… |
| ECT | Russano et al · Clin Exp Metastasis | 2025 | Prospective Clinical Study | Human | Systemic / Abscopal Immune Response | Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a local treatment combining chemotherapy with electroporation. This prospective multicentre study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of ECT in the treatment of patie… |
| Other EP | Aigner et al · European Journal of Surgical Oncology | 2023 | Prospective Clinical Study | Human | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Relapsed unresectable triple negative breast cancer is a demanding disease with currently no standard treatment option. Especially for patients with huge tumor masses a treatment that offers… |
| ECT | Matthiessen et al · Clin Breast Cancer | 2018 | Prospective Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Muscle Contraction and Anaesthesia Requirement | Background: Cutaneous recurrence from breast cancer can pose a clinical challenge. It might be the only disease site, or could be part of disseminated disease, and often profoundly affects q… |
| ECT | Matthiessen et al · Annals of Oncology | 2016 | Prospective Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Muscle Contraction and Anaesthesia Requirement | Cutaneous recurrence from breast cancer can pose a clinical challenge. It may be the only disease site, or be part of disseminated disease, and often profoundly impacts quality of life. Elec… |
| ECT | Benevento et al · Int J Surg Case Rep | 2015 | Prospective Clinical Study | Human | – | Introduction: Angiosarcomas are highly malignant endothelial cell tumors with poor prognosis. These can be due to breast cancer itself or to subsequent therapeutic modalities. No evidence-ba… |
| ECT | Cabula · European Journal of Surgical Oncology (EJSO) | 2013 | Prospective Clinical Study | Human | – | C. Cabula* Ospedale Oncologico, Cagliari, Italy * Corresponding author. Cabula C. Cagliari, Italy. E-mail address: carlocabula@oncologiachirurgica.it. ABSTRACTS 5 patients with breast cancer… |
| Other EP | Aigner et al · Cancers (Basel) | 2024 | Clinical Study | Human | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Background: Relapsed unresectable triple-negative breast cancer is a demanding disease with only a few treatment options. Especially for patients with unresectable tumor masses, a treatment … |
| Other EP | Bieżuńska-Kusiak et al · Pharmaceuticals (Basel) | 2023 | Clinical Study | Human | – | Breast cancer ranks among the top three most common malignant neoplasms in Poland. The use of calcium ion-assisted electroporation is an alternative approach to the classic treatment of this… |
| ECT | Di Prata et al · Cancers (Basel) | 2023 | Clinical Study | Human | – | Electrochemotherapy has been proven to be an efficient treatment for cutaneous metastases of various cancers. Data on breast cancer (BC) patients with cutaneous metastases were retrieved fro… |
| ECT | Bartolo et al · The Breast | 2019 | Clinical Study | Human | – | Surgery of the primary tumor and the axilla is a mandatory part of the treatment in early breast cancer (BC). In the metastatic setting, surgery may be discussed as a procedure, improving lo… |
| ECT | Wichtowski et al · Oncol Res Treat | 2018 | Clinical Study | Human | – | Introduction: Breast cancer is responsible for more than 50% of cutaneous metastases. One of the treatment options is electrochemotherapy (ECT). It is an effective method of local tumor abla… |
| ECT | Grischke et al · Radiol Oncol | 2017 | Clinical Study | Human | Necrosis and Necroptosis | Background: Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is an established procedure for treating breast cancer loco-regional recurrences following surgical intervention and/or radiotherapy. Limited informatio… |
| ECT | Guida et al · Annals of Oncology | 2017 | Clinical Study | Human | – | This publication has no abstract. |
| ECT | Bourke et al · Breast Cancer Res Treat | 2016 | Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Purpose: Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is the application of electric pulses to tumour tissue to render the cell membranes permeable to usually impermeant hydrophilic anti-cancer drugs, thereby … |
| ECT | Piechocki et al · Curr. Gynecol. Oncol. | 2016 | Clinical Study | Human | Haemostasis and Bleeding Control | Electrochemotherapy is a local therapy method reserved for cases not subject to surgery in advanced surface-localized cancers in the integuments. It may be applied in treating primary skin n… |
| ECT | Denzi et al · Biomed Eng Online | 2015 | Clinical Study | Human | Necrosis and Necroptosis, Electrode Geometry and Placement | Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide and is the second most common cause of cancer death in women. Electrochemotherapy (ECT) used in early-phase clinical tr… |
| ECT | Kalavathy et al · JCPCR | 2015 | Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Electrode Geometry and Placement | Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a local cancer treatment modality where the intracellular accumulation of a chemotherapeutic agent is enhanced in the presence of an electrical field by the phen… |
| ECT | Mercantini et al · The American Surgeon™ | 2015 | Clinical Study | Human | – | This publication has no abstract. |
| ECT | Sundararajan · JCPCR | 2015 | Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation, Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) has poor prognosis. This is due to lack of estrogen, progesterone and HER-2 receptors. About 15% of all breast cancers are TNBC. This year in the US alon… |
| ECT | Schmidt et al · Geburtshilfe Frauenheilkd | 2014 | Clinical Study | Human | – | Electrochemotherapy is a new method for the local treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous metastases. If surgery and/or radiotherapy are no longer possible, this innovative technology can be… |
| ECT | Wichmann Matthiessen et al · Radiol Oncol | 2013 | Clinical Study | Human | – | Background: Electrochemotherapy is a local anticancer treatment very efficient for treatment of small cutaneous metastases. The method is now being investigated for large cutaneous recurrenc… |
| ECT | Campana et al · European Journal of Surgical Oncology (EJSO) | 2013 | Clinical Study | Human | – | This publication has no abstract. |
| ECT | Nizar et al · The Breast | 2013 | Clinical Study | Human | – | Locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) remains a common daily clinical encounter in many parts of the world including the Middle East. Improvement in the outcome of patients with breast cance… |
| ECT | Oom et al · The Breast | 2013 | Clinical Study | Human | – | The presence of HER2 overexpression predicts a poor prognosis for patients. It is associated with a high rate of disease progression despite the widespread use of HER2-targeted therapies. Th… |
| ECT | Benevento et al · BMC Surg | 2012 | Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | Background: The management of cutaneous metastases often represents a challenge because they may be widespread and may recur after radiotherapy or chemotherapy; breast cancer accounts for 51… |
| ECT | Cabula · European Journal of Surgical Oncology (EJSO) | 2012 | Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation | Electrochemotherapy (ECT), a new palliative treatment for cutaneous metastases, involves the delivery of electrical pulses to lesions several minutes after intravenous or intratumor injectio… |
| ECT | Campana et al · Breast Cancer Res Treat | 2012 | Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Electrochemotherapy (ECT) represents an attractive locoregional therapy for unresectable chest wall recurrence (CWR) from breast cancer. Thirty-five patients with cutaneous CWR after mastect… |
| ECT | Matthiessen et al · Acta Oncol | 2012 | Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Background: Cutaneous recurrences of breast cancer may cause considerable discomfort due to ulceration, oozing, and pain and can also be difficult to treat. Electrochemotherapy is a localise… |
| ECT | Sersa et al · Radiotherapy and Oncology | 2012 | Clinical Study | Animal (In Vivo) | – | This publication has no abstract. |
| ECT | Matthiessen et al · European Journal of Cancer Supplements | 2009 | Clinical Study | Human | – | This publication has no abstract. |
| ECT | Whelan et al · European Journal of Cancer Supplements | 2006 | Clinical Study | Human | – | The application of combined chemotherapy and cancer cell permeabilising electric pulses (electrochemotherapy) has been demonstrated here to be clinically effective in the treatment and contr… |
| ECT | Rebersek et al · Anticancer Drugs | 2004 | Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation | We have evaluated the efficiency of electrochemotherapy with cisplatin on cutaneous tumor lesions of breast cancer and have compared its efficiency with the efficiency of intratumoral (i.t.)… |
| ECT | Sena et al · Eur J Surg Oncol | 2026 | Retrospective Clinical Study | Human | – | Background: Cutaneous and subcutaneous recurrence of breast cancer represents a challenging clinical scenario, particularly in patients previously treated with surgery, radiotherapy, and sys… |
| ECT | Russano et al · Front Oncol | 2021 | Retrospective Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | The treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous localizations from breast cancer (BC) is still a therapeutic challenge. Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is one of the available options, and it is chara… |
| ECT | Cabula et al · Ann Surg Oncol | 2015 | Retrospective Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Background: The management of breast cancer (BC) skin metastases represents a therapeutic challenge. Electrochemotherapy (ECT) combines the administration of bleomycin with temporary permeab… |
| ECT | Campana et al · J Cancer Res Clin Oncol | 2014 | Retrospective Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of electrochemotherapy (ECT) in elderly metastatic breast cancer (BC) patients. Methods: Retrospective analysis of 55 patients with superficial… |
| ECT | Shahverdi et al · Int J Cancer Manag | 2026 | Case Series | Human | – | Background and Objective: Breast cancer (BC), the second most prevalent cancer worldwide, poses a significant health challenge. Despite major advances in therapeutic modalities for BC, patie… |
| ECT | Mazzotti · IJCCR | 2024 | Case Report | Human | – | Electrochemotherapy represents one of the therapeutic breakthroughs in the oncology field. In this case report, we describe a woman diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. The case was treated… |
| ECT | Corrado et al · Anticancer Res | 2023 | Case Report | Human | – | Background: We present the case of a recurrent malignant phyllodes tumor of the breast, after mastectomy and radiotherapy, in which electrochemotherapy (ECT) was applied to the tumor bed, to… |
| ECT | Campana et al · J Surg Case Rep | 2022 | Case Report | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Electrode Geometry and Placement | A 55-year-old woman with previous skin-sparing mastectomy and prosthetic reconstruction for multifocal ductal carcinoma developed homolateral axillary recurrence. Following nodal dissection,… |
| Calcium EP | Jensen · Case Rep Dermatol | 2022 | Case Report | Human | Calcium Electroporation and ATP Depletion, Disruption of Calcium Homeostasis | We report a case of successful treatment of cutaneous metastases in HER2-positive breast cancer with calcium electroporation (CaEP), in addition to trastuzumab, over a period of 5 years. CaE… |
| ECT | Esposito et al · Transl Cancer Res | 2021 | Case Report | Human | Necrosis and Necroptosis, Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Electrochemotherapy has been shown to be safe, effective and non-invasive loco-regional treatment for chest wall breast cancer recurrence. Electrochemotherapy is a palliative treatment offer… |
| ECT | Cencelj-Arnez et al · Radiol Oncol | 2020 | Case Report | Human | – | Background: Radiotherapy-associated angiosarcoma (RAA) of the breast is a rare complication of radiotherapy, which is often difficult to identify and has poor prognosis. It usually presents … |
| ECT | Esposito et al · – | 2020 | Case Report | – | Necrosis and Necroptosis, Optimisation of Pulse Parameters | Background Electrochemotherapy has been shown to be safe, effective and non-invasive loco-regional treatment for chest wall breast cancer recurrence. Electrochemotherapy is the gold standard… |
| ECT | Radica et al · AME Case Rep | 2020 | Case Report | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Necrosis and Necroptosis | Breast cancer is the most common cause of chest wall recurrence, skin, and subcutaneous tissue metastases which mainly occur as multiple nodes in the skin and subcutaneous tissue. When it oc… |
| ECT | Mofid et al · Acta Med Iran | 2017 | Case Report | Human | Muscle Contraction and Anaesthesia Requirement | Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a new local treatment method for solid and superficial tumors. During this new technique, patients experience an unpleasant sensation and slight edema. Most unpl… |
| ECT | Wichtowski et al · Breast Care (Basel) | 2016 | Case Report | Human | – | Background: Chest wall recurrence (CWR) from breast cancer after mastectomy is a difficult to treat disease. Electrochemotherapy (ECT) provides a safe, efficient, and non-invasive locoregion… |
| ECT | Cabula · Updates Surg | 2012 | Case Report | Human | – | Neoadjuvant electrochemotherapy of breast cancer: our experience on first case treated in Italy Carlo Cabula Received: 29 December 2010 / Accepted: 17 July 2012 / Published online: 12 August… |
| ECT | Ferioli et al · Clin Exp Metastasis | 2020 | Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation | Skin metastases occur in 5-30% of breast cancer (BC) patients. Standard treatments include systemic therapies (chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, and immunotherapy) and local treatments (surge… |
| Other EP | Russano et al · Ther Adv Med Oncol | 2025 | Review | Literature Analysis | – | Cutaneous metastases from breast cancer, although relatively uncommon, represent the most frequent form of skin metastases overall and pose a significant clinical and therapeutic challenge. … |
| ECT | Russano et al · Biomedicines | 2025 | Review | Literature Analysis | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation | Cutaneous metastases from breast carcinoma represent a debilitating complication of advanced disease progression, significantly impacting patients' quality of life. Electrochemotherapy (ECT)… |
| ECT | Campana et al · Handbook of Electroporation | 2017 | Review | Literature Analysis | – | Skin metastases occur more commonly in breast cancer (BC) than in any other malignancy in women, exceeding 20% of all cutaneous metastases. They most commonly present on the chest wall (CW),… |
| ECT | Wichtowski et al · Breast Care (Basel) | 2017 | Review | Literature Analysis | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation | Breast cancer is the most common cause of skin metastases in women. The probability of their occurrence ranges from about 5% in the entire population to as much as 30% in the late stages of … |
| IRE | Thomson et al · Tech Vasc Interv Radiol | 2015 | Review | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a novel nonthermal focal ablation technique that uses a series of brief but intense electric pulses delivered by paired electrodes into a targeted regio… |
| ECT | Sersa et al · Cancer Treat Rev | 2012 | Review | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation | Chest wall breast cancer recurrence after mastectomy is a disease difficult to treat. Its incidence varies between 5% and 30% in different subset of patients. When possible, radical surgical… |
| ECT | Radzevičiūtė-Valčiukė et al · Front Immunol | 2026 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Tissue Conductivity and Impedance Change, Optimisation of Pulse Parameters | Calcium electrochemotherapy (CaECT) is an effective alternative to standard chemotherapeutic treatments, utilizing intracellular delivery of supraphysiological calcium concentrations to indu… |
| ECT | YazdanParast et al · Biomedicines | 2026 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | Background : Electrochemotherapy enhances the intracellular delivery of anticancer agents through electroporation but is traditionally limited to cytotoxic drugs associated with significant … |
| Calcium EP | Barauskaitė-Šarkinienė et al · Int J Mol Sci | 2025 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death | Electrochemotherapy (ECT) uses electroporation to enhance drug delivery into tumor cells, triggering bystander effects like immunogenicity and cell death. This study investigated bystander e… |
| ECT | Omerzel et al · Cancers (Basel) | 2025 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Combination, Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | Background : Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a clinically validated local ablative treatment increasingly recognized for its ability to induce immunogenic cell death and stimulate antitumor imm… |
| Other EP | Pastori et al · J Vasc Interv Radiol | 2024 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Systemic / Abscopal Immune Response, Necrosis and Necroptosis | Purpose: To compare the immune response and survival after size-matched radiofrequency (RF) ablation and a proprietary form of pulsed electric field (PEF) ablation in murine tumors. Material… |
| ECT | Bosnjak et al · Bioelectrochemistry | 2021 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, DNA Damage and Double-Strand Breaks | Electrochemotherapy (ECT), a local therapy, has different effectiveness among tumor types. In breast cancer, its effectiveness is low; therefore, combined therapies are needed. The aim of ou… |
| Gene ET | Guo · Front Immunol | 2020 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA) | Interleukin 15 (IL-15) has been evaluated as a potential treatment for solid tumors in clinical trials, but the effectiveness of systemic IL-15 administration as a monotherapy has not been r… |
| ECT | Sundararajan et al · Biomedicines | 2020 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | – | In the US, every 12 min, six women are diagnosed with breast cancer and one dies. This highlights a critical need for developing alternate therapies using natural compounds, which are cost e… |
| Gene ET | Savarin · Technol Cancer Res Treat | 2018 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Antivascular Effect and Vessel Disruption, Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA) | Vascular-targeted therapies exhibit radiosensitizing effects by remodeling tumor vasculature, thus facilitating the increased oxygenation of the remaining tumor tissue. To examine these phen… |
| ECT | Lanza et al · J Vet Med Sci | 2017 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation | Two male rats (Rattus norvegicus; 18 and 24 months old), were referred for treatment of large masses located in the axillary area. Following total body radiography and hematological and seru… |
| IRE | Zhang et al · PLoS One | 2017 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Background and aim: Irreversible electroporation (IRE) was confirmed to control several solid tumors effectively in vivo. Our preclinical study aimed to assess the feasibility and safety of … |
| IRE | Zhang et al · Biomed Microdevices | 2017 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is considered predominantly as a non-thermal ablative technique that uses electrical fields to permeabilize cell membranes and lead to cell death. In this … |
| Gene ET | Stimac · PLoS One | 2015 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA), Antivascular Effect and Vessel Disruption | Vascular targeted therapies, targeting specific endothelial cell markers, are promising approaches for the treatment of cancer. One of the targets is endoglin, transforming growth factor-β (… |
| ECT | Mahna et al · J Membr Biol | 2013 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Optimisation of Pulse Parameters, Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | From a fundamental point of view, chemotherapy is the most widely used treatment for cancers despite its side effects on normal cells and tissues. Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a method for i… |
| ECT | Raeisi et al · Radiol Oncol | 2012 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation | Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the antitumor effectiveness of electrochemotherapy with cisplatin combined with suboptimal radiotherapy doses. Tumor radiosensitization w… |
| Other EP | Haller et al · Oncogene | 2010 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA) | The Notch ligand delta-like ligand 4 (DLL4) is an essential component expressed by endothelial tip cells during angiogenic sprouting. We have described a conceptually novel therapeutic strat… |
| Gene ET | Shibata · BMC Med | 2010 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA), Apoptosis Induction | Background: Cancer metastasis contributes significantly to cancer mortality and is facilitated by lymphangiogenesis and angiogenesis. A new splicing variant, endogenous soluble vascular endo… |
| IRE | Neal et al · Breast Cancer Res Treat | 2010 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Electric Field Distribution and Modelling | Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a therapeutic technology for the ablation of soft tissues using electrodes to deliver intense but short electric pulses across a cell membrane, creating… |
| Gene ET | Shibata et al · Cancer Gene Ther | 2008 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA) | Cancer metastasis contributes significantly to cancer mortality and is facilitated by lymphangiogenesis and angiogenesis. Vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C) and VEGF-A are involve… |
| Other EP | Anon · Molecular Therapy | 2007 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA) | Earlierstudies by our group have demonstrated the potential of branched Polyethyleneimine (PEl, 70Kd) conjugated poly(lactide-co-glycolide)PLGAmicroparticles forenhanced in vitro transfectio… |
| Gene ET | Curcio et al · Cancer Gene Ther | 2007 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | – | A recently developed, adaptive constant-current electroporation technique was used to immunize mice with an intramuscular injection of plasmid coding for the extracellular and transmembrane … |
| Other EP | Wells et al · Gene Ther | 2000 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA), Electric Field Distribution and Modelling | Electroporation was applied to enhance gene transfer into subcutaneous MC2 murine breast tumors. Cultured MC2 cells were also transfected by electroporation or by cationic liposomes in the p… |
| ECT | Belehradek et al · Eur J Cancer | 1991 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | Electrochemotherapy delivers external electric pulses to the tumour site to induce local potentiation of the antitumour activity of intramuscular injections of bleomycin. C3H/Bi mice with sp… |
| ECT | Rembiałkowska et al · Bioelectrochemistry | 2026 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Oxidative Stress | Electrochemotherapy (ECT), combining pulsed electric fields (PEFs) with cytotoxic drugs, enhances intracellular drug delivery and tumor control; however, cellular stress responses determinin… |
| Other EP | Wei et al · Bioelectrochemistry | 2026 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Oxidative Stress, Immunogenic Cell Death (ICD) | This study aimed to investigate the synergistic effect of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) and pulsed electric field (PEF) in inducing immunogenic cell death (ICD) in triple-negative breast can… |
| ECT | Yetişsin et al · Artvin Çoruh Üniversitesi Orman Fakültesi Dergisi | 2025 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | – | The aim of the current study was to determine the phenolic substances in the stem of Asparagus officinalis L, leaves of Arum elongatum Steven and Urtica dioica L. plants collected from diffe… |
| ECT | Michel et al · Front Oncol | 2025 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Field (nsPEF) | Introduction: Electroporation (EP) is a technique that transiently increases the permeability of the cell membrane through the application of high-voltage electric pulses, facilitating the i… |
| Other EP | Safaei et al · Bioelectromagnetics | 2025 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Apoptosis Induction, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Breast cancer is the second-leading cancer-related death among women. Survival rates decrease from 99% for localized stages of breast tumors to only 27% when distant metastases develop. Incr… |
| ECT | Lekešytė et al · Pharmaceutics | 2024 | In Vitro Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | Background/Objectives: Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a safe and efficient method of targeted drug delivery using pulsed electric fields (PEF), one that is based on the phenomenon of electropo… |
| ECT | Cvetkovic et al · Experimental and Applied Biomedical Research (EABR) | 2023 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death | Despite advances in treatment, breast cancer remains one of the leading causes of death, and obviously new approaches to the treatment are needed. Due to minimal side effects, unlike more ag… |
| ECT | Giri et al · Explor Target Antitumor Ther | 2023 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Oxidative Stress, Apoptosis Induction | Aim: Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is difficult to treat since it lacks all the three most commonly targeted hormone receptors. Patients afflicted with TNBC are treated with platinum … |
| ECT | Bute et al · Med Oncol | 2022 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Optimisation of Pulse Parameters | Traditional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy have several limitations. Therefore, their performance must be enhanced with combined methods. The purpose of this study … |
| ECT | Rembiałkowska et al · Molecules | 2022 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Oxidative Stress, Optimisation of Pulse Parameters | (1) Background: Pulsed electric field (PEF) techniques are commonly used to support the delivery of various molecules. A PEF seems a promising method for low permeability drugs or when cells… |
| ECT | Varadarajan et al · Appl Biochem Biotechnol | 2022 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | – | With the absence of the three most common receptor targets, and with high vascularity and higher-grade tumors, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive of all breast cance… |
| IRE | Jiang et al · Biosensors (Basel) | 2022 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a non-thermal tumor ablation technique that delivers short pulses of strong electric fields to cancer tissues and induces cell death through the destruc… |
| ECT | Abd-Elghany · Electromagn Biol Med | 2021 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Field (nsPEF), Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | The study aimed to evaluate the possibility to perform electrochemotherapy using nanosecond pulsed electric field (nsPEF) and low electric field (LEF) monopolar electrical impulses to allevi… |
| ECT | Sundararajan et al · Appl Biochem Biotechnol | 2021 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation, Apoptosis Induction | Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are available and/or induced for the survival of all organisms, including eukaryotic, prokaryotic, and plants, from higher temperature stresses. They are the chape… |
| ECT | Mittal et al · Bioelectrochemistry | 2020 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Apoptosis Induction | Curcumin (Cur), the yellow pigment of well-known turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) is effective in multiple cancers including triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). In combination with electrical p… |
| ECT | Mittal et al · Sci Rep | 2020 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Oxidative Stress | Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) represents 15-20% of the over one million new breast cancer cases occurring each year. TNBC is an aggressive cancer phenotype, with low 5-year survival r… |
| Other EP | Rembiałkowska et al · Applied Sciences | 2020 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | Electroporation increases the transmembrane transport of molecules. The combination of electric pulses with cytostatic compounds is beneficial for cancer treatment. Doxorubicin (DOX) is a co… |
| Gene ET | Sieni · Cancers (Basel) | 2020 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA), Preservation of Extracellular Matrix and Tissue Scaffold | Gene Electro-Transfer (GET) is a powerful method of DNA delivery with great potential for medical applications. Although GET has been extensively studied in vitro and in vivo, the optimal pa… |
| Other EP | Sieni et al · Bioelectrochemistry | 2020 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Preservation of Extracellular Matrix and Tissue Scaffold | Nowadays, electroporation (EP) represents a promising method for the intracellular delivery of anticancer drugs. To setting up the process, the EP efficiency is usually evaluated by using ce… |
| IRE | Vera-Tizatl et al · Electromagn Biol Med | 2020 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death | In order to establish cancer-type-specific electroporation protocols for breast cancer, electroporation was performed in vitro in two modalities: in-suspension and adhered cells. Electropora… |
| ECT | Aslam et al · RSC Adv | 2019 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Transmembrane Potential Change, Electric Field Distribution and Modelling | Electroporation has offered important biomedical applications in electrochemotherapy, tissue ablation and gene editing recently. Time and computation efficient analytical and numerical model… |
| Calcium EP | Hoejholt et al · Sci Rep | 2019 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Calcium Electroporation and ATP Depletion, Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Calcium electroporation is a novel anti-cancer treatment investigated in clinical trials. We explored cell sensitivity to calcium electroporation and electroporation with bleomycin, using vi… |
| ECT | Mittal et al · Sci Rep | 2019 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation, Apoptosis Induction | Due to the lack of the three main receptors, triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is refractive to standard chemotherapy. Hence, alternate therapies are needed. TNBCs utilize glycolysis, whi… |
| ECT | Weżgowiec et al · Bioelectrochemistry | 2018 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Apoptosis Induction | Electrochemotherapy became one of the therapeutic protocols successfully used in oncology. However, biological effects occurring in cells, especially those which are drug resistant, have not… |
| IRE | Goswami et al · Bioelectrochemistry | 2017 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Low-level electric fields have been demonstrated to induce spatial re-distribution of cell membrane receptors when applied for minutes or hours. However, there is limited literature on the i… |
| Other EP | Wezgowiec et al · Photodiagnosis Photodyn Ther | 2013 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | Background: Ineffective drug delivery is a vast problem of anticancer therapies. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of enhancement of cyanines transport through the cel… |
| Other EP | Pehlivanova et al · Cancer Cell Int | 2012 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Background: Recently electroporation using biphasic pulses was successfully applied in clinical developments for treating tumours in humans and animals. We evaluated the effects of electrica… |
| Other EP | Kulbacka et al · Folia Biol (Praha) | 2011 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | – | Phototoxicity of drugs used in cancer photodynamic therapy could be augmented by increased accumulation of a photosensitizer in target cells. The intracellular delivery mode that enhances dr… |
| IRE | Neal et al · Ann Biomed Eng | 2009 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Developments in breast cancer therapies show potential for replacing simple and radical mastectomies with less invasive techniques. Localized thermal techniques encounter difficulties, preve… |
| ECT | Vera-Tizatl et al · Technol Cancer Res Treat | 2018 | In Silico / Modelling | Human | Electrode Geometry and Placement, Electric Field Distribution and Modelling | Breast cancer represents a rising problem concerning public health worldwide. Current efforts are aimed to the development of new minimally invasive and conservative treatment procedures for… |
| ECT | Łapińska et al · Adv Clin Exp Med | 2022 | Editorial / Letter | Human | – | Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer in women, and its incidence is increasing every year. Current treatment is based on surgical resection, chemotherapy (CT), radiotherapy, and horm… |
| ECT | Di Meo et al · J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol | 2019 | Editorial / Letter | Human | – | N/A |
| ECT | Bourke et al · Breast Cancer Res Treat | 2017 | Editorial / Letter | Human | – | , We read with interest Bourke et al.’s paper on the treatment of cutaneous metastases from breast cancer (BC) with electrochemotherapy (ECT) [1]. In a highly pretreated population—whose sur… |
| ECT | Campana et al · Breast Cancer Res Treat | 2017 | Editorial / Letter | Human | – | Breast Cancer Res Treat (2017) 163:403–405 DOI 10.1007/s10549-017-4187-7 REBUTTAL LETTER Effective treatment of intractable cutaneous metastases of breast cancer with electrochemotherapy: a … |
| ECT | Bosnjak et al · Bioelectrochemistry | 2021 | Correction / Erratum | Animal (In Vivo) | – | Bioelectrochemistry 141 (2021) 107865 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Bioelectrochemistry journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/bioelechem Corrigendum Corrigendum to ‘‘PARP inh… |
| ECT | Mittal et al · Sci Rep | 2019 | Correction / Erratum | Cell Culture | Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation | An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. |
| ECT | Bourke et al · Breast Cancer Res Treat | 2017 | Correction / Erratum | – | – | This publication has no abstract. |
| ECT | Poompavai et al · IEEE Trans. Radiat. Plasma Med. Sci. | 2020 | Not reported | – | Thermal Effect and Joule Heating | Short intense electric pulses surpass the capacitance of the cell membrane and leads to permeabilization [electroporation (EP)]. EP can be reversible [electrochemotherapy (ECT)] or irreversi… |
| ECT | Agresti et al · The Breast | 2017 | Protocol | Human | – | The multicentre cohort analysis conducted by GISEL (Italian Senological Group for Electrochemotherapy) confirmed that Electrochemotherapy (ECT) has high antitumor activity (> 90% ORR) on ski… |
| ECT | Banerjee et al · European Journal of Surgical Oncology (EJSO) | 2016 | Not reported | – | – | This publication has no abstract. |
| ECT | Zheng et al · Gland Surg | 2012 | Not reported | – | – | Luca G. Campana, MD, PhD, Sarcoma and Melanoma Unit, Veneto Region Oncology Research Institute (IOVIRCCS) (Figure 1). |
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Limitations
The counts on this page are bounded by the scope of the source PDF archive and are not a systematic review of the area's literature.
A literature maturity label reflects the number of publications, not their methodological quality: it describes how much literature exists in the area and of what kind, not how strongly the treatment is supported. It does not indicate clinical use, guideline endorsement, reimbursement coverage or regulatory status, and it is not a formal GRADE assessment. The definitions and thresholds of the four tiers are on the Literature Map.
The “clinical publications” figure on this page (49) uses the portal's single definition: primary clinical studies, case series and case reports. Systematic reviews and guidelines are not included. The count feeding the badge threshold is narrower and does not count case reports; in this area 6 publications enter that threshold count across every method together (ECT 6 · IRE 0 · Calcium EP 0 · Gene ET 0 · Other EP 0), whereas the badge at the top of the page rests on the ECT count alone. The two counts are not the same and cannot stand in for one another; the full threshold table is on the Literature Map.
12 of the 120 records in this area enter the threshold count. The remaining 108 are marked in the validation ledger as conflicting, insufficient or out of scoring; they appear in the table below but affect no threshold and no badge. That share (10%) is not equal across areas: it is 13% portal-wide and ranges from 0% to 42% by area. Two areas' badges therefore cannot be compared directly; a lower badge can reflect narrower verification coverage as much as a narrower literature.
Literature maturity on this page is given separately for each clinical method. The methods present in this area are: Electrochemotherapy (ECT), Irreversible electroporation (IRE), Calcium electroporation, Gene electrotransfer, Other electroporation applications. Methods may share the same biophysical basis but they are distinct treatments; evidence gathered for one method cannot be generalised to another.