How the 2,820 publications in the oncology corpus are distributed across 22 application areas and five study-type bands. The map shows how far an area has advanced in the literature; it does not indicate treatment suitability for any individual patient.
“Clinical publication” covers primary clinical studies, case series and case reports, 31% of the oncology corpus. 322 registry records come from a ClinicalTrials.gov export and 65 from other registries; a record count is not a study count. What each figure counts is set out under How to Read the Numbers at the foot of the page.
Rows are application areas, columns are study-type bands; bubble area is proportional to the publication count. 22 areas, sorted by clinical strength. The ratio beside a badge is the number of records entering the threshold over the total in the area; for areas that are not human oncology indications the second line names the kind of area rather than the tissue group.
Each area is counted at its electrochemotherapy literature maturity; where there are no electrochemotherapy records the first scored method is used. The tier thresholds: thresholds behind the area badges.
| Application area | RCT · review · guideline | Clinical study | Case series · report | Preclinical | Review · technical · other | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pancreatic CancerDeep Organ TumoursECT: Exploratory literaturethreshold 3/34IRE: Broader clinical literaturethreshold 56/229 | 24 | 114 | 18 | 62 | 56 | 274 |
| Prostate & Urological TumoursUrogynaecological TumoursECT: Exploratory literaturethreshold 2/11IRE: Broader clinical literaturethreshold 37/117 | 21 | 60 | 11 | 31 | 29 | 152 |
| General Principles & BiophysicsBasic science, method and deviceECT: Exploratory literaturethreshold 8/245IRE: Preclinical literaturethreshold 17/211 | 16 | 53 | 5 | 683 | 211 | 968 |
| Skin & Cutaneous TumoursSkin & Superficial TumoursECT: Broader clinical literaturethreshold 27/173IRE: Exploratory literaturethreshold 1/5 | 15 | 74 | 50 | 30 | 41 | 210 |
| Liver TumoursDeep Organ TumoursECT: Early clinical literaturethreshold 13/47IRE: Broader clinical literaturethreshold 60/203 | 14 | 93 | 28 | 115 | 41 | 291 |
| Malignant MelanomaSkin & Superficial TumoursECT: Early clinical literaturethreshold 19/124IRE: Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/6 | 9 | 55 | 25 | 77 | 27 | 193 |
| Head & Neck TumoursHead, Neck & OrbitECT: Early clinical literaturethreshold 12/63IRE: Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/6 | 7 | 28 | 15 | 11 | 16 | 77 |
| Vascular MalformationsBenign clinical applicationECT: Exploratory literaturethreshold 2/7 | 6 | 16 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 38 |
| Vulvar CancerUrogynaecological TumoursECT: Early clinical literaturethreshold 10/29IRE: Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/1 | 3 | 18 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 31 |
| Breast CancerDeep Organ TumoursECT: Early clinical literaturethreshold 11/87IRE: Exploratory literaturethreshold 1/8 | 2 | 36 | 12 | 53 | 17 | 120 |
| Kaposi SarcomaSkin & Superficial TumoursECT: Exploratory literaturethreshold 4/22 | 2 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 24 |
| Colorectal CancerDeep Organ TumoursECT: Exploratory literaturethreshold 4/24IRE: Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/8 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 26 | 7 | 50 |
| CholangiocarcinomaDeep Organ TumoursECT: Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/4IRE: Early clinical literaturethreshold 7/17 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 25 |
| Devices & Clinical TrialsBasic science, method and deviceECT: Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/4IRE: Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/5 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 19 | 39 |
| Electrochemotherapy in Metastatic DiseaseSpecial IndicationsECT: Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/13IRE: Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/7 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 23 |
| Oesophageal & Upper Gastrointestinal TumoursDeep Organ TumoursECT: Exploratory literaturethreshold 1/2IRE: Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| Bone & Soft Tissue SarcomasMusculoskeletal & CNSECT: Early clinical literaturethreshold 8/39IRE: Exploratory literaturethreshold 3/13 | 0 | 11 | 14 | 27 | 12 | 64 |
| Lung & Peribronchial TumoursDeep Organ TumoursECT: Exploratory literaturethreshold 1/4IRE: Exploratory literaturethreshold 2/11 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 12 | 2 | 18 |
| Veterinary OncologyVeterinary oncologyECT: Exploratory literaturethreshold 2/121IRE: Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/4 | 0 | 1 | 27 | 111 | 18 | 157 |
| Brain TumoursMusculoskeletal & CNSECT: Exploratory literaturethreshold 1/7IRE: Exploratory literaturethreshold 2/30 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 36 | 9 | 47 |
| Endometrial CancerUrogynaecological TumoursIRE: Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Ovarian TumoursUrogynaecological TumoursECT: Exploratory literaturethreshold 0/7IRE: Exploratory literaturethreshold 1/2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 10 |
Bubble size, publication count: 125100683
Study-type band, count in the corpus: RCT · review · guideline 127Clinical study 600Case series · report 247Preclinical 1,314Review · technical · other 532
These 127 records are selected by publication type: randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews or meta-analyses, guidelines and consensus documents. Publication type alone does not mean clinical outcome. 6 study protocols that report no results yet and 1 conference abstract are not in the list below (they remain searchable in the library); in 11 of the 120 listed articles electroporation is background rather than the intervention under study, and 44 of the 127 records pass the portal's eligibility check. Patient numbers, response, survival and risk-of-bias appraisal do not appear in this portal. Newest first; click a title for the citation and full abstract.
General Principles & Biophysics · ECT
Background Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a nonthermal locoregional treatment that enhances cytotoxic drug uptake through reversible electroporation and is increasingly used across different…
Vascular Malformations · Electrosclerotherapy
Bleomycin electrosclerotherapy (BEST) is an emerging, minimally invasive treatment for treating slow-flow vascular malformations. Following intralesional administration of bleomycin…
Vascular Malformations · Electrosclerotherapy
Purpose: To review the available evidence on the effectiveness and safety of bleomycin electrosclerotherapy (BEST) for slow-flow vascular malformations. Materials and methods: A systematic…
General Principles & Biophysics · ECT
Objectives: To systematically review the available evidence on electrochemotherapy (ECT) in pediatric patients, focusing on indications, treatment parameters, efficacy, and safety…
Liver Tumours · IRE
The aim of this study was to systematically pool all direct comparative evidence from two-arm studies comparing irreversible electroporation (IRE) and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for…
Pancreatic Cancer · IRE
Objective The aim of this meta-analysis was to determine the efficacy and safety of percutaneous irreversible electroporation combined with immunotherapy compared with irreversible…
Liver Tumours · Undetermined
The new therapeutic options now available for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have made their assessment more complex, especially due to the different stages of liver cirrhosis…
Cholangiocarcinoma · Other EP
Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is the second most common primary liver cancer and is being diagnosed with increasing frequency worldwide. We performed a systematic review on radiofrequency (RFA)…
Pancreatic Cancer · ECT
Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most difficult cancers to treat, with a dismal 5-year survival rate of only 8-10%. This challenging prognosis highlights…
Malignant Melanoma · ECT
Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a locoregional cancer treatment primarily used in the palliative management of cutaneous metastases from malignant melanoma. However, its clinical…
Liver Tumours · IRE
Background: Locoregional treatments for early-stage unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are widely used, with irreversible electroporation (IRE) and transarterial chemoembolization…
Breast Cancer · ECT
Background: Skin metastases occur in 5% - 30% of breast cancer patients, highlighting the need for effective treatments. Electrochemotherapy, which combines electric pulses with…
The portal is not a live literature search: it is an archive of publications gathered, downloaded and resolved to their citation data. The data version at the foot of every page names the date it belongs to.
| Figure | What it counts | What it leaves out |
|---|---|---|
| 2,820 oncology corpus | Tumour treatment applications; 22 application areas. | The non-oncological areas: DNA Vaccination by Electroporation, Cardiac Pulsed-Field Ablation, Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Field (nsPEF) and Non-Oncological Electroporation. |
| 3,056 extended electroporation corpus | The oncology corpus plus non-oncological electroporation applications; 26 areas. | Neighbouring technologies that are not electroporation, device clearances and assessment documents. |
| 877 clinical publications | Primary clinical studies, case series and case reports as assigned by the automatic study-type classification. 830 are human, 37 animal-model and 10 carry no determined model; 785 are journal articles, the rest conference abstracts, editorials, preprints and protocols. 235 of them enter the maturity threshold calculation. | Systematic reviews, guidelines and preclinical publications. |
| 355 records feeding the badges | Records whose classification agrees with their own text and with the external index record. Across the whole extended corpus 402 records meet the condition; the badges of the non-oncological areas are computed from the difference. | Records that conflict or carry insufficient data; they appear in the library but affect no badge. |
The literature map, the application area pages and the anatomical explorer count the oncology corpus; the research library and the mechanism cross-matrix count the extended corpus. Neighbouring technologies and clearance and assessment documents enter no publication count; they stand with their own figures on Neighbouring Technologies and Clearance and Assessment Documents.
| Field | Primary source | Fallback rule | Unassigned |
|---|---|---|---|
| Study type | PubMed publication type tags | Crossref and OpenAlex document type; then keyword rules over title and abstract | 41 |
| Model system | MeSH headings (human, animal, cell line) | Species and method expressions in title and abstract | 110 |
| Mechanism terms | Term patterns over title, abstract and opening paragraph | At most six terms per record, ranked by frequency | 431 |
All labels are automatic: first the index's own field, and in its absence a rule set over title and abstract. Unassigned records are not hidden; they appear as “Not reported” in the tables. Document type and study design are held in separate fields (the preprint of a randomised study appears as both “Preprint” and “randomised”) and the counts are taken from the study type field. Document distribution: Journal Article 2,804 · Conference Abstract 98 · Editorial / Letter 75 · Protocol 31 · Preprint 21 · Correction / Erratum 14 · Thesis 11 · Technical Document 1 · Book Chapter 1.
| Band | Study types it covers | Publications |
|---|---|---|
| RCT · review · guideline | Randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews or meta-analyses, guidelines and consensus documents | 127 |
| Clinical study | Prospective, retrospective and unspecified clinical studies | 600 |
| Case series · report | Case series and single case reports | 247 |
| Preclinical | Animal, in vitro, in silico and experimental biophysics studies | 1,314 |
| Review · technical · other | Narrative reviews, technical and device papers, editorials, conference abstracts and records without an assigned study type | 532 |
| Literature maturity | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Broader clinical literature | At least 15 clinical studies or case series and at least 1 strong publication |
| Early clinical literature | At least 4 clinical studies or case series |
| Preclinical literature | At least 5 preclinical publications |
| Exploratory literature | Areas meeting none of the thresholds above |
| Set | Study types |
|---|---|
| Clinical study or case series | Case Series, Clinical Study, Prospective Clinical Study, Randomized Clinical Trial, Retrospective Clinical Study |
| Strong publication | Guideline / Consensus, Randomized Clinical Trial, Systematic Review / Meta-Analysis |
| Preclinical publication | Animal Study, Experimental Biophysics Study, In Silico / Modelling, In Vitro Study |
A badge is computed for each (method, area) pair separately: within the same indication the electrochemotherapy and irreversible electroporation literatures can be at different stages. Case reports do not count towards the thresholds, so that a single case report cannot lift an area to a higher tier. The figure of 877 “clinical publications” above does include case reports.
The corpus is an archive of publications gathered by the team and filed by application area: each PDF in the archive corresponds to one record, its citation data resolved from external indexes and its labels assigned by rule. The archive holds 3,211 PDFs, of which 3,056 are counted as publications.
This is not a systematic review and was not conducted as one: there is no pre-registered protocol, no fixed search string, no locked date range and no two-reviewer screening flow. The portal therefore cannot publish a PRISMA flow diagram; doing so would describe a process that did not take place. What the archive covers and what it deliberately leaves out is set out in the table below.
| Archive set | Why it is not counted as a publication | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| Regulatory and grey literature | Approval documents, adverse event records, health technology assessment reports and manufacturer instructions for use. They are not peer-reviewed journal publications and therefore do not enter the publication counts; their content is the subject of the safety and regulation page. The trial registry exports also sit in this folder and feed the trials table, but they are not counted as publications. | 56 |
| Electrochemical ablation (EChT) | A separate technology that drives an electrochemical reaction in tissue with direct current; applied on its own it involves no pulse that raises membrane permeability. The set also holds studies that combine electrolysis with electroporation pulses (E²); sitting on both sides of the boundary, they stay out of the corpus and are published on the neighbouring technologies page. | 37 |
| Food, microbial and environmental PEF | Pulsed electric field in food processing, microbial control and environmental applications. This is electroporation but not a medical use, so it does not enter the portal's corpus. The publications are listed on the Neighbouring Technologies page. | 6 |
| Thermal and other ablation methods | Radiofrequency, microwave, cryoablation and focused ultrasound. Tissue death is by heat or freezing rather than membrane permeabilisation, so they do not enter the electroporation literature. The publications are listed on the Neighbouring Technologies page. | 21 |
| Intralesional chemotherapy without electroporation | Studies in which the drug is injected directly into the lesion with no electric pulse. This is the comparison ground for electrochemotherapy but is not itself electroporation. The publications are listed on the Neighbouring Technologies page. | 10 |
| Bioelectromagnetic fields | Studies of low-voltage electric and magnetic fields. No pulse exceeding the membrane permeability threshold is applied, so this is not electroporation. The publications are listed on the Neighbouring Technologies page. | 11 |
| Books | Books and book scans. They cannot be counted as individual publication records and stay outside the corpus; book chapters filed with their own citation data do enter the corpus. | 2 |
Citation data is resolved from external indexes: 2,466 records through PubMed, 481 through Crossref and 91 through Europe PMC. 3,000 records carry a DOI and 2,536 a PubMed identifier. A further 10 records were entered by hand because no index held them. The overlap between archive and portal is audited on every build; if a document in the archive has no place in the portal, the build stops.
Labels are assigned by rule and checked against the external indexes. Errors on individual records are to be expected, and aggregate counts carry the same margin.
The area of a publication is determined by the folder it sits in, so a filing error turns directly into an area error.
The same study can enter the corpus as more than one record: a preprint and its final article, a conference version and the full publication, a translation, an article and its erratum. In the oncology corpus 55 records form 27 families, and in 15 of them the records are versions of the same study. The publication record count is 2,820; once those versions are deduplicated 2,804 independent studies remain. Every figure on these pages is a publication record count, while only one version of a family enters the threshold calculation.
It covers only the publications that have entered the archive and stays as it is until the archive is updated.
Where no abstract could be found in the indexes the text is extracted from the source PDF and can break. For 88 such records the text is not published; the citation data and source links remain. In 3 record the title stays cut short.
The registry export carries no regime distinction: the field is empty on all 322 records. Enrolment and status fields can also be stale unless they are updated in the registry.
The portal counts publications; it reports no outcomes. Patient numbers, response rates, local control, survival, safety measures, comparator arms and risk-of-bias appraisal appear on no page. How many publications an area holds says nothing about how well the treatment works.
Non-English literature, unindexed journals and studies whose full text was unavailable are systematically under-represented. This is not a systematic review protocol.
If you spot an error in a record, report it from that record's drawer in the library; the citation and identifier are added to the message automatically. For page-level errors write to info@dgmed.com.tr.
Publication span: 1986–2026 (extended electroporation corpus), 1988–2026 (oncology corpus). The datasets behind the tables on these pages can be downloaded: records, maturity matrix, mechanism distribution, application areas, trial registry, other registries, validation ledger.
