Group: Special Indications
Electrochemotherapy in Metastatic Disease
The role of electrochemotherapy in metastatic disease concerns how the contribution of a local method to systemic disease should be defined. Symptom palliation, local control in oligometastatic disease and the possibility of an abscopal response when combined with immunotherapy are the three main research themes of this area.
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 0/13
No record for this method entered the maturity calculation; the records are marked in the validation ledger as conflicting, insufficient or out of scope.
1998–2026
Irreversible electroporation (IRE)
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.
2016–2024
Gene electrotransfer
Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/2
No record for this method entered the maturity calculation; the records are marked in the validation ledger as conflicting, insufficient or out of scope.
2013–2015
Other electroporation applications
This set does not name a single clinical method; no literature maturity is assigned.
2025–2025
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Prospective Clinical Study | 1 | 4% |
| Clinical Study | 2 | 9% |
| Retrospective Clinical Study | 2 | 9% |
| Case Series | 1 | 4% |
| Case Report | 4 | 17% |
| Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis | 1 | 4% |
| Review | 5 | 22% |
| Animal Study | 5 | 22% |
| In Vitro Study | 1 | 4% |
| Preprint | 1 | 4% |
Literature Evidence Table
23 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other EP | Moreno-Gonzalez et al · Cancers (Basel) | 2025 | Prospective Clinical Study | Human | – | Background : The AFFINITY trial (NCT05890872) is a prospective, non-randomized, open-label, single-arm study evaluating the safety, immunological impact, and preliminary efficacy of Aliya pu… |
| ECT | Ranieri et al · Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci | 2020 | Clinical Study | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Objective: The aim of this investigation focuses on the evaluation of the efficacy of deep-seated Electrochemotherapy (ECT) in terms of pain relief and local objective response, in pre-treat… |
| ECT | Farré Alegre et al · European Journal of Surgical Oncology | 2012 | Clinical Study | Human | – | This publication has no abstract. |
| IRE | Narayanan · Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol | 2024 | Retrospective Clinical Study | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Purpose: Demonstrating the safety and efficacy of percutaneous irreversible electroporation (IRE) for the treatment of lymph node metastases. Materials and methods: An IRB-approved, single-c… |
| IRE | Narayanan et al · Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol | 2024 | Retrospective Clinical Study | Human | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Purpose: A single-center retrospective study was performed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of minimally invasive irreversible electroporation (IRE) to treat metastatic adrenal tumors. Ma… |
| IRE | Underhill et al · The American Surgeon™ | 2016 | Case Series | Human | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death | This publication has no abstract. |
| ECT | Fiore et al · Reports (MDPI) | 2026 | Case Report | Human | Electrode Geometry and Placement, Muscle Contraction and Anaesthesia Requirement | Background and Clinical Significance : Bone involvement is a common and debilitating manifestation of advanced malignancies, with a substantial negative impact on patients' functional status… |
| IRE | Klein et al · Clin Case Rep | 2017 | Case Report | Human | Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation, Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death | The combination of Irreversible Electroporation and Electrochemotherapy (IRECT) was well tolerated, safe, and had antitumor activity in this case study of a patient with lymph node metastase… |
| ECT | Spugnini et al · In Vivo | 2008 | Case Report | Animal (In Vivo) | – | Canine apocrine gland carcinoma is a locally aggressive neoplasm that can occasionally lead to metastatic spread, thus mimicking the behavior of their human counterpart. In this paper we des… |
| ECT | Serša et al · Tumori | 2000 | Case Report | Human | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | A metastasis of hypernephroma was treated by electrochemotherapy with bleomycin. Electrochemotherapy consists of chemotherapy followed by local application of electric pulses to the tumor in… |
| ECT | Bocchi et al · J Clin Med | 2023 | Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis | Literature Analysis | – | Background and aim: Cancers are one of the most frequent causes of death and disability in humans. Skeletal involvement has a major impact on the quality of life and prognosis of cancer pati… |
| ECT | Feddal et al · Cardiovasc Intervent Radiol | 2025 | Review | Human | – | Bone is the third most common site for metastases, frequently leading to skeletal-related events (SREs) such as pain, metastatic epidural spinal cord compression (MESCC), and pathological fr… |
| ECT | Mahdavi et al · Biomedicines | 2025 | Review | Literature Analysis | Immunogenic Cell Death (ICD), Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Combination | Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionized cancer immunotherapy by enhancing T-cell-mediated anti-tumor responses in solid malignancies. However, their efficacy is often limited… |
| Gene ET | Sersa et al · Cancer Immunol Immunother | 2015 | Review | Animal (In Vivo) | Gene Electrotransfer (Plasmid DNA), Systemic / Abscopal Immune Response | Electroporation is a platform technology for drug and gene delivery. When applied to cell in vitro or tissues in vivo, it leads to an increase in membrane permeability for molecules which ot… |
| ECT | Grocott et al · Curr Opin Support Palliat Care | 2013 | Review | Human | – | Purpose of review: This article describes why this review is timely and relevant. To report on the recent research, which advances our understanding and practice of palliative wound care (wo… |
| ECT | Jarm et al · Expert Rev Anticancer Ther | 2010 | Review | Human | Antivascular Effect and Vessel Disruption, Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Solid tumors of various etiologies can be treated efficiently by electrochemotherapy (ECT), a combined use of electroporation (EP) and chemotherapeutic drugs, such as bleomycin and cisplatin… |
| IRE | Han et al · Small | 2022 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | To circumvent the limitations of conventional cancer immunotherapy, it is critical to prime antigen-presenting cells (APCs) to initiate the cancer-immune cycle. Here, the authors develop a m… |
| IRE | Lee et al · Sci Rep | 2019 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a newly developed non-thermal ablative therapy. During the IRE procedure, the permeability of the cell membrane is irreversibly changed by application o… |
| ECT | Josserand et al · J Control Release | 2016 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation | Surgery is often the first therapeutic indication in cancer. Patient survival essentially depends on the completeness of tumor resection. This is a major challenge, particularly in patients … |
| Gene ET | Shibata et al · Anticancer Res | 2013 | 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 factors-C and D (VEGF-C and VEGF-D) are … |
| ECT | Orlowski et al · Anticancer Drugs | 1998 | Animal Study | Animal (In Vivo) | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Potentiation of Cytotoxic Drug Permeability | Murine Lewis lung (3LL) tumors are characterized by the appearance of lung metastases after a regular period following their s.c. transplantation. We tested the respective efficiencies of va… |
| IRE | Qin et al · Mol Med Rep | 2016 | In Vitro Study | Cell Culture | Irreversible Pore Formation and Cell Death, Reversible Membrane Permeabilisation | The effects of irreversible electroporation (IRE) on the proliferation, migration, invasion and adhesion of human cervical cancer cell lines HeLa and SiHa were investigated in the present st… |
| ECT | Reyes-Habito et al · – | 2018 | Preprint | – | Increased Intracellular Bleomycin Accumulation, Increased Intracellular Cisplatin Accumulation | Introduction: Cutaneous metastasis and malignant wounds decrease the quality of life of cancer patients. Electrochemotherapy is a localized treatment which enhances the uptake of chemotherap… |
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 (10) 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; no publication in this area enters that threshold count under any method, and 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.
0 of the 23 records in this area enter the threshold count. The remaining 23 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 (0%) 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), 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.