Electrochemotherapy in Veterinary Medicine
As with humans, cancer rates among our animal friends are constantly increasing If a mass develops on or under an animal skin, it could be a tumor. This tumor can be treated, considerably increasing the life expectancy of the animal. Numerous treatments exist, notably an innovative technology: electrochemotherapy. One session takes about 20 minutes. The animal is anesthetized, then the tumor is cleaned and disinfected. The doctor then proceeds to apply linear retro-tracing injections of the chemotherapy drug every 6 mm, intratumorally. Pulsed electric fields are then applied to the whole surface of the tumor, as well as a 1 cm margin around the tumor. The pulsed electric fields render the tumor’s cells permeable, allowing the cytotoxic product to efficiently penetrate the tumor cell’s walls. The DNA cleavage breaks lead to apoptotic cell death and prevents cell division. During the 10 days that follow the session, the dead tumor cells are completely ev...