Cancer Treatments of the Irreversible Electroporation

Abstract

Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a kind of non-thermal tumor treatment strategy. Based on this, Nanoknife emerged, which is approved by FDA in 2011. From then on, clinical application of nanosecond electrical pulsed have showed an explosive growth. At the cell level, the biophysical mechanism of nonthermal irreversible electroporation of electrical pulsed was studied. At the animal level, it has studied the safety of irreversible electroporation and preclinical animal experiments, also the clinical application of irreversible electroporation. We reviewed Animal studies of IRE and Clinical application of IRE. Also traditional medical imaging methods such as CT, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultra-sound imaging can be used in the IRE therapy. The evidences can prove the beneficial effects and safety of IRE in tumor treatment and verify the potential of IRE in clinical treatment to some extent. However, larger clinical trials are still needed to confirm these conclusions. Hopefully, as we go deeper into IRE, we get a more thorough understanding of it and the application will appear in various fields.