Group: Deep Organ Tumours
Colorectal Cancer
In colorectal tumours electroporation has been studied in distinct contexts: liver metastases, local recurrence and endoscopically accessible lesions. The clinical literature of this area is narrow next to the pancreatic and hepatic indications, and most of its records are preclinical.
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)
Exploratory literaturethreshold 4/24
Validated records entering the maturity calculation: 4 (clinical 1, preclinical 0), 17% of the records for this method.
1997–2025
Irreversible electroporation (IRE)
Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/8
No record for this method entered the maturity calculation; the records are marked in the validation ledger as conflicting, insufficient or out of scope.
2012–2025
Calcium electroporation
Exploratory literaturethreshold 2/9
Validated records entering the maturity calculation: 2 (clinical 1, preclinical 0), 22% of the records for this method.
2015–2026
Gene electrotransfer
Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/1
No record for this method entered the maturity calculation; the records are marked in the validation ledger as conflicting, insufficient or out of scope.
2025–2025
Other electroporation applications
This set does not name a single clinical method; no literature maturity is assigned.
2001–2026
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.
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 | 2% |
| Prospective Clinical Study | 2 | 4% |
| Clinical Study | 6 | 12% |
| Case Series | 2 | 4% |
| Case Report | 5 | 10% |
| Guideline / Consensus | 1 | 2% |
| Review | 5 | 10% |
| Animal Study | 18 | 36% |
| In Vitro Study | 8 | 16% |
| Survey / Field Study | 2 | 4% |
Literature Evidence Table
50 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 | Rega et al · Cancers (Basel) | 2021 | Randomized Clinical Trial | Human | – | Background: Currently, 45-55% of rectal cancer patients receive preoperative chemo- radio-therapy for Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer (LARC). The idea of our study is to use Electrochemothera… |
| Calcium EP | Broholm · Endosc Int Open | 2023 | Prospective Clinical Study | Human | Calcium Electroporation and ATP Depletion | Background and study aims Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignancies, with approximately 20 % of patients having metastatic disease. Local symptoms from the tumor remain a comm… |
| ECT | Falk Hansen et al · Endosc Int Open | 2020 | Prospective Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Background and study aims Electrochemotherapy is an anticancer treatment that uses electric pulses to facilitate uptake of chemotherapeutic drugs in tumor cells and has proven to have a high… |
| Calcium EP | Broholm et al · Surg Endosc | 2023 | Clinical Study | Human | Calcium Electroporation and ATP Depletion | Background: The development of new perioperative treatment modalities to activate the immune system in colorectal cancer might have a beneficial effect on reducing the risk of recurrence aft… |
| IRE | Spiers et al · HPB | 2023 | Clinical Study | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | ES: SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF FEASIBILITY, SAFETY AND OUTCOME H. V. Spiers1, F. Lancellotti2 and A. K. Siriwardena2 1 University of Cambridge, Department of Surgery, Cambridge, United Kingdom, an… |
| IRE | Meijerink et al · Radiology | 2021 | Clinical Study | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Background Irreversible electroporation (IRE), an ablative technique that uses high-voltage electrical pulses, has shown promise for eradicating tumors near critical structures, including bl… |
| Calcium EP | Broholm et al · European Journal of Surgical Oncology | 2019 | Clinical Study | Human | Calcium Electroporation and ATP Depletion | Electroporation is a method used to permeabilize cell membranes with high voltage pulses. As a result, an increased flow of molecules across the cell membrane is observed, and allows passage … |
| ECT | Scala et al · European Journal of Surgical Oncology (EJSO) | 2015 | Clinical Study | Human | – | This publication has no abstract. |
| ECT | Rega et al · European Journal of Surgical Oncology (EJSO) | 2014 | Clinical Study | Human | – | This publication has no abstract. |
| Other EP | Aigner et al · Front Oncol | 2025 | Case Series | Human | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Introduction: We report a series of four patients with HPV-positive squamous cell carcinoma of the anus: two with non-previously treated grade G3 malignancies, and two with relapsing G2 tumo… |
| Other EP | Adeyeye · – | 2025 | Case Series | Human | Apoptosis Induction, Necrosis and Necroptosis | Background/Objectives: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most common gastrointestinal (GI) malignancy, the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality, and the third most prevalent tumor. … |
| Calcium EP | Adeyeye · J Clin Med | 2025 | Case Report | Human | Calcium Electroporation and ATP Depletion, Apoptosis Induction | Background/Objectives: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most common gastrointestinal (GI) malignancy, the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality, and the third most prevalent tumor. … |
| ECT | Rega et al · J Clin Med | 2022 | Case Report | Human | – | Purpose: Surgery, radiotherapy, and oncological treatment (chemotherapy and antineoplastic antibodies) are standard treatments of rectal cancer. ECT has shown its effectiveness and suitabili… |
| ECT | Caprino et al · J Surg Case Rep | 2021 | Case Report | Human | – | Recurrence of rectal cancer (RRC) affects up to one-third of patients. The survival is strictly dependent on the possibility of performing surgery without microscopic tumor residues (R0). El… |
| ECT | Ferioli et al · Anticancer Drugs | 2020 | Case Report | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Muscle Contraction and Anaesthesia Requirement | Anal canal adenocarcinoma is generally treated like rectal cancer. Surgery is the standard treatment in early stages and neoadjuvant chemoradiation in locally advanced tumors. Local recurren… |
| ECT | Borgognoni et al · Future Oncol | 2014 | Case Report | Human | – | We report the case of an old woman with an eccrine porocarcinoma unusually localized in the perianal area treated by electrochemotherapy, a new technique, emerging as a very effective local … |
| Other EP | Adeyeye et al · – | 2025 | Guideline / Consensus | Human | Muscle Contraction and Anaesthesia Requirement | Background: Endoscopic Electroporation (EE) is an innovative minimally invasive therapy that utilises short electrical pulses combined with intratumoural (IT) calcium or IT/ intravenous (IV)… |
| Calcium EP | Adeyeye et al · – | 2026 | Review | – | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Background/Objectives: Endoscopic electroporation — including electrochemotherapy, calcium electroporation, irreversible electroporation and pulsed-field ablation — is an intended non-therma… |
| Other EP | Pérez-Santiago et al · Cancers (Basel) | 2026 | Review | Literature Analysis | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death | Background: Colorectal liver metastases (CRLM) represent a major determinant of prognosis in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and account for a substantial proportion of cancer-rel… |
| ECT | Adeyeye et al · J Clin Med | 2025 | Review | Literature Analysis | Muscle Contraction and Anaesthesia Requirement | Background: Endoscopic Electroporation (EE) is an innovative minimally invasive therapy that utilises short electrical pulses combined with intratumoural (IT) calcium or IT/intravenous (IV) … |
| IRE | Zhang et al · Cancers (Basel) | 2025 | Review | Literature Analysis | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Colorectal liver metastasis (CRLM) poses a significant challenge in oncology due to its high incidence and poor prognosis in unresectable cases. Current treatments, including surgical resect… |
| ECT | Schipilliti et al · Radiol Oncol | 2022 | Review | Human | – | Background: Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a minimally invasive and safe treatment gaining positive and long-lasting antitumoral results that are receiving the attention of the scientific comm… |
| Gene ET | De · Mol Ther Nucleic Acids | 2025 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA), Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Gene electrotransfer (GET) has recently emerged as an effective nonviral approach for plasmid DNA (pDNA) delivery in gene therapy for several pathologies, including cancer. Multiple mechanis… |
| IRE | Rugivarodom · VideoGIE | 2025 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Electroporation (EP) is a novel, highly selective, nonthermal modality for tissue ablation.1 Reversible EP occurs when an electrical field is applied to the target cell creating transmembran… |
| ECT | Tremble et al · Cancer Lett | 2019 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation, Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Electrochemotherapy is an emerging treatment modality for cancer patients which can effectively reduce tumour burden and induce immunogenic cell death. Electrochemotherapy is most commonly u… |
| Calcium EP | Falk et al · Oncoimmunology | 2017 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Calcium Electroporation and ATP Depletion, Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Electroporation is used in cancer treatment because of its ability to increase local cytotoxicity of e.g. bleomycin (electrochemotherapy) and calcium (calcium electroporation). Calcium elect… |
| Other EP | Kulbacka et al · Bioelectrochemistry | 2016 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | Nanocarriers and electroporation (also named electropermeabilization) are convenient methods to increase drug transport. In the current study, we present an effective support of drug deliver… |
| ECT | Calvet et al · Oncoimmunology | 2014 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Immunogenic Cell Death (ICD), Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a local cancer treatment that has been used over the course of more than 2 decades for the removal of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumors. Several lines of evidenc… |
| IRE | Srimathveeravalli et al · J Vasc Interv Radiol | 2013 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Purpose: To study the feasibility of a novel endorectal electrode for the creation of focal ablations of the rectal wall with the use of irreversible electroporation (IRE). Materials and met… |
| ECT | Bourke et al · European Journal of Surgical Oncology (EJSO) | 2012 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | – | This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of preoperative ultrasound with FNA for detecting axillary metastases in invasive breast cancer in a medium sized district general hospital. Methods… |
| IRE | Schoellnast et al · Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol | 2012 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Purpose: To evaluate the effects of irreversible electroporation (IRE) on the rectum wall after IRE applied adjacent to the rectum. Material and methods: CT-guided IRE adjacent to the rectum… |
| ECT | Gunji et al · Hepatogastroenterology | 2005 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Background/aims: Electrochemotherapy, which uses two parallel electrodes for delivery of electric pulses, may be useful for treatment of tumor nodules. However, in clinical fields, tumors th… |
| ECT | Zheng · World J Gastroenterol | 2005 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Necrosis and Necroptosis | Aim: To evaluate the anti-tumor effects and possible involvement of anti-tumor immunity of electrochemotherapy (ECT) employing electroporation and bleomycin in human colon cancer xenografts … |
| ECT | Kuriyama et al · Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology | 2001 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Background: Although electrochemotherapy appears promising for the treatment of superficial tumors, its usefulness against internal tumors, such as colorectal carcinoma (CRC), has not been w… |
| Other EP | Matsubara et al · Int J Oncol | 2001 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA) | Delivery of electric pulses to an established solid tumor augments the permeability of cell membrane and increases the susceptibility of tumors to an anti-cancer agent that is administered i… |
| ECT | Kuriyama et al · Int J Oncol | 2000 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Mice bearing subcutaneously established colorectal carcinoma (CRC) were given intratumoral, intravenous or intraperitoneal injection of various doses of bleomycin (BLM), followed by the deli… |
| ECT | Kuriyama et al · Open MIND | 2000 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | – | This publication has no abstract. |
| ECT | Mitoro et al · Int J Oncol | 2000 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Effectiveness of electrochemotherapy against colorectal carcinoma (CRC) was evaluated in a mouse model. When mice with a subcutaneously established CRC tumor were administered intratumorally… |
| ECT | Kuriyama et al · Int J Oncol | 1999 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Electropermeabilization was shown to markedly increase the sensitivity of murine colorectal carcinoma (CRC) cells to bleomycin (BLM), resulting in more than 2,500-fold higher susceptibility … |
| ECT | Tada et al · Surg Today | 1997 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Electrochemotherapy is a novel antitumor treatment involving the systemic administration of bleomycin followed by the delivery of electrical pulses to the tumor. The present study investigat… |
| Calcium EP | Szewczyk · Biol Res | 2025 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Oxidative Stress, Calcium Electroporation and ATP Depletion | Background: Electroporation (EP) leverages electric pulses to permeabilize cell membranes, enabling the delivery of therapeutic agents like calcium in cancer treatment. Calcium electroporati… |
| ECT | Szlasa et al · Pharmaceuticals (Basel) | 2024 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | – | Colon cancer (CC) management includes surgery, radio- and chemotherapy based on treatment with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) or its derivatives. However, its application is limited to low-grade carc… |
| Other EP | Kulbacka et al · Int J Mol Sci | 2022 | In Vitro Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Oxidative Stress, Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | (1) Background: The size and surface charge are the most significant parameters of nanocarriers that determine their efficiency and potential application. The poor cell uptake of encapsulate… |
| ECT | Alkis et al · Electromagn Biol Med | 2022 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Optimisation of Pulse Parameters | Although chemotherapy (CT) has some adverse effects on healthy tissues and cells, it is widely preferred for treating patients with cancer. Drug resistance is one of the major impediments to… |
| Calcium EP | Gibot et al · Cancers (Basel) | 2020 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Calcium Electroporation and ATP Depletion, DNA Damage and Double-Strand Breaks | Adolescent cancer survivors present increased risks of developing secondary malignancies due to cancer therapy. Electrochemotherapy is a promising anti-cancer approach that potentiates the c… |
| Other EP | Griseti et al · Sci Rep | 2019 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | Cold atmospheric plasma and more recently, plasma-activated liquids (culture media, water or buffered solutions previously exposed to plasma), are gathering momentum in cancer cells treatmen… |
| Calcium EP | Frandsen et al · PLoS One | 2015 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Calcium Electroporation and ATP Depletion, Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Background: Calcium electroporation describes the use of high voltage electric pulses to introduce supraphysiological calcium concentrations into cells. This promising method is currently in… |
| ECT | Kuriyama et al · Int J Oncol | 1999 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Effectiveness of electrochemotherapy against colorectal carcinoma (CRC) was investigated in vitro using murine CRC cell lines. Electropermeabilization did not increase the sensitivity of CRC… |
| IRE | Spiers et al · Dig Surg | 2025 | Survey / Field Study | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Introduction: Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a form of non-thermal ablation that delivers pulses of high-voltage electric current between electrodes. Although IRE has been demonstrate… |
| IRE | Spiers et al · – | 2024 | Survey / Field Study | – | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | : Background: Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a form of non-thermal ablation that delivers pulses of high voltage electrical current between electrodes. The role of IRE in the treatmen… |
No publication matches these filters.
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 (16) 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 2 publications enter that threshold count across every method together (ECT 1 · IRE 0 · Calcium EP 1 · 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.
8 of the 50 records in this area enter the threshold count. The remaining 42 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 (16%) 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.