Group: Skin & Superficial Tumours
Kaposi Sarcoma
The skin lesions of Kaposi sarcoma are numerous and scattered; being able to treat many nodules in a single session is the main rationale given in the literature for studying electrochemotherapy in this indication. Clinical series exist for both classic and HIV-associated forms.
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 4/22
Validated records entering the maturity calculation: 4 (clinical 2, preclinical 0), 18% of the records for this method.
2006–2025
Other electroporation applications
This set does not name a single clinical method; no literature maturity is assigned.
2019–2023
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical Study | 8 | 33% |
| Retrospective Clinical Study | 2 | 8% |
| Case Series | 1 | 4% |
| Case Report | 5 | 21% |
| Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis | 1 | 4% |
| Guideline / Consensus | 1 | 4% |
| Review | 2 | 8% |
| Animal Study | 1 | 4% |
| Editorial / Letter | 1 | 4% |
| Correction / Erratum | 1 | 4% |
| Not reported | 1 | 4% |
Literature Evidence Table
24 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 | Quaglino et al · Eur J Surg Oncol | 2025 | Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | Introduction: Kaposi sarcoma (KS) is a cancer of endothelial cells involving the skin and visceral organs. Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is an alternative treatment option for patients with cuta… |
| ECT | Rullo et al · Cancers (Basel) | 2024 | Clinical Study | Human | – | Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is one of the newest therapeutic strategies employed as a medical procedure for skin neoplasms' treatment, especially for classic Kaposi's sarcoma (CKS). The aim of… |
| ECT | Pfefferle et al · J Dtsch Dermatol Ges | 2022 | Clinical Study | Human | Muscle Contraction and Anaesthesia Requirement | This publication has no abstract. |
| ECT | Borgognoni et al · Anticancer Res | 2020 | Clinical Study | Human | – | Background: We aimed to verify the clinical efficacy and safety of the electrochemotherapy in melanoma metastases and in cases of rare non-melanoma tumors that were difficult to treat for th… |
| ECT | Starita et al · Infect Agent Cancer | 2017 | Clinical Study | Human | – | Background: Electrochemotherapy (ECT) has shown to be an effective treatment for cutaneous and subcutaneous Kaposi sarcoma (KS) lesions. However, no study has investigated the impact of ECT … |
| ECT | Di Monta et al · Eur J Surg Oncol | 2014 | Clinical Study | Human | – | Background: Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a novel modality for the treatment of skin nodules and cutaneous or subcutaneous tumors that allows delivery of low and non-permeant drug into cells.… |
| ECT | Latini et al · Dermatol Ther | 2012 | Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | The present prospective study was aimed at evaluating the long-term efficacy of local electrochemotherapy (ECT) with the intravenous administration of bleomycin, on disease progression and v… |
| ECT | Curatolo et al · Ann Surg Oncol | 2011 | Clinical Study | Human | Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | Background: Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is an emerging treatment for cutaneous lesions of different tumor types. The combination of chemotherapy and electroporation enhances drug uptake into t… |
| ECT | Lalanda et al · Int J Dermatol | 2022 | Retrospective Clinical Study | Human | – | Background and objectives: Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a locally aggressive mesenchymal tumor that involves the lymphovascular system, with a tendency to become multifocal. Electrochemotherapy … |
| ECT | Savoia et al · COSCI | 2022 | Retrospective Clinical Study | Human | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Background: Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a tumor of endothelial derivation, which primarily affects the skin and is mainly related to the type 8 Human Herpesvirus (HHV8). Its onset is favored by… |
| ECT | Rullo et al · – | 2024 | Case Series | – | – | Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is one of the newest therapeutic strategies employed as medical procedure for skin neoplasms’ treatment, especially for Classic Kaposi’s Sarcoma (CKS). The aim of t… |
| ECT | Niccolò et al · Anticancer Drugs | 2023 | Case Report | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | An elderly female patient with a long-standing history of Kaposi's sarcoma of the lower limbs was referred to the Surgical Department after the subsequential failure of multiple lines of sys… |
| ECT | Pfefferle et al · J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol | 2022 | Case Report | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Electrode Geometry and Placement | , Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is becoming increasingly important in the treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumours of various entities in the palliative setting. Using needle electrodes o… |
| ECT | Gualdi et al · J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol | 2010 | Case Report | Human | – | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 239 Figure 1 Annular and erythematous papules localized on the tibial region (a) and complete resolution of the granuloma annulare lesions after only 2 weeks of topiram… |
| ECT | Curatolo et al · Dermatol Surg | 2008 | Case Report | Human | – | [No abstract available] |
| ECT | Garbay et al · European Journal of Cancer Supplements | 2006 | Case Report | Human | – | Most of the tumours treated by electrochemotherapy are cutaneous malignant melanoma nodules, breast cancer recurrences, or basal cell carcinomas.1–4 However, the bases of the electrochemothe… |
| ECT | Ferioli et al · Mol Clin Oncol | 2021 | Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis | Literature Analysis | – | Kaposi sarcoma (KS) is a rare angioproliferative disorder, which is usually associated with human herpesvirus-8 infection. Electrochemotherapy (ECT) may be an option in the treatment of KS s… |
| Other EP | Lebbe et al · Eur J Cancer | 2019 | Guideline / Consensus | Human | – | Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a multifocal neoplasm of lymphatic endothelium-derived cells infected with human herpesvirus 8. Four clinical subtypes are distinguished: the classic, the endemic, t… |
| Other EP | Brambilla et al · J Cutan Med Surg | 2023 | Review | Human | – | Background: occasional case reports have described the appearance of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) on previously unaffected skin after incidental or accidental injury, but the association is probabl… |
| ECT | Reinhold · Anticancer Drugs | 2011 | Review | Animal (In Vivo) | Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | Electrochemotherapy is an effective local tumor ablation modality in the treatment of solid cancers. Its use combines the administration of nonpermeable or poorly permeable highly intrinsic … |
| ECT | Marone et al · European Journal of Surgical Oncology (EJSO) | 2013 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Necrosis and Necroptosis | Treatment of recurrent pelvic tumours involving the abdominal wall is extremely challenging and should include extensive resections with planned reconstructions. Failure of wound healing is … |
| ECT | Curatolo et al · J Cutan Med Surg | 2020 | Editorial / Letter | Human | – | This publication has no abstract. |
| ECT | Quaglino et al · Eur J Surg Oncol | 2025 | Correction / Erratum | – | – | European Journal of Surgical Oncology 51 (2025) 110187 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect European Journal of Surgical Oncology journal homepage: www.ejso.com Corrigendum to “Electroc… |
| ECT | Chlebopaseviene ve Satkauskas · Health Sciences | 2021 | Not reported | – | – | Chemoterapija yra standartizuotas vėžio gydymas vienu ar keliais vaistais, naikinančiais navikines ląsteles ar stabdančiais jų augimą. Chemoterapijos galimybės dar labiau padidėja, taikant j… |
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 2 · 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.
4 of the 24 records in this area enter the threshold count. The remaining 20 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 (17%) 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), 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.