Nanoelectroablation of human pancreatic carcinoma in a murine xenograft model without recurrence

Abstract

We have identified an effective nanoelectroablation therapy for treating pancreatic carcinoma in a murine xenograft model. This therapy initiates apoptosis in a nonthermal manner by applying low energy electric pulses 100 ns long and 30 kV/cm in amplitude to the tumor. We first identified the minimum pulse number required for complete ablation by treating 30 tumors. We found that the minimum number of pulses required to ablate the tumor with a single treatment is between 250 and 500 pulses. We settled on a single application of either 500 or 1,000 pulses to treat pancreatic carcinomas in 19 NIH-III mice. Seventeen of the 19 treated tumors exhibited complete regression without recurrence. Three mice died of unknown causes within 3 months after treatment but 16 lived for 270-302 days at which time we sacrificed them for histological analysis. In the 17 untreated controls, the tumor grew so large that we had to sacrifice all of them within 4 months. What's new? Treating a tumor in the pancreas requires great care to avoid damaging the organ. Current treatments use heat, which damages healthy pancreatic tissue surrounding the tumor. This paper explores a method, nanoelectroablation, which can minimize unnecessary tissue damage. Nanoelectroablation focuses the damage between the electrodes, so that only the disease cells are destroyed. Working with subdermal xenograft human pancreatic tumors in mice, the authors determined the minimum number of pulses necessary to kill off the tumor cells without excess damage to the surrounding healthy tissue. Copyright © 2012 UICC.