Electroporation combined with Yervoy in Europe, not that unique.
Dr. Declan Soden, director of the Cork Cancer Research Centre, has worked in the area of targeted gene and drug delivery to tumours for the last decade. In that time his group has initiated 3 novel Phase I clinical trials, and currently over 350 patients have received a novel form of therapy for inoperable skin cancers. They have developed a device for the electroporation/permeabilisation of gastrointestinal tract cancers which facilitates a significant improvement in local drug or DNA absorption without the normally associated systemic side effects.
Currently the Cork Cancer Research Centre, is conducting a Phase ½ study for the treatment of malignant melanoma with electroporation to trigger immunological synergy with Ipilimumab. The start date was in September 2015.
Clinical Relevance
In a number of clinical studies (phase II and phase III) investigators have concluded that electrochemotherapy with bleomycin and cisplatin of cutaneous or subcutaneous metastasis or tumors has an objective response rate of more than 80 percent. Reduction of tumor size has been achieved with electrochemotherapy faster and more efficiently than in standard chemotherapy for both cutaneous and subcutaneous tumors. Electrochemotherapy involves combining a normally poorly absorbed chemotherapy agent and the delivery of an electrical field directly to the tumor.
The use of electrical pulses for cancer therapy has exciting potential applications beyond permeabilizing the tumor cell membrane.
The cell death mechanism induced by electrochemotherapy has been previously published to induce a type of immunogenic cell death, which helps in priming a strong local anticancer immune response.
Clinical studies are about to commence in Europe, looking to combine the immune priming effect of electrochemotherapy with newly available immunotherapeutic antibodies. Early indications have shown that this combination can be effective in generating a systemic tumor antigen specific cytotoxic T-cell response
