Electrochemotherapy in treatment of tumours.

Aim: Electrochemotherapy is a local drug delivery approach aimed at treatment with palliative intent of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumour nodules of different histologies. Electrochemotherapy, via cell membrane permeabilising electric pulses, potentiates the cytotoxicity of non-permeant or poorly permeant anticancer drugs with high intrinsic cytotoxicity, such as bleomycin or cisplatin, at the site of electric pulse application.

Methods: An overview of preclinical and clinical studies is presented, and the treatment procedure is further critically evaluated.

Genetic susceptibility to environmental carcinogenesis in Slovenian melanoma patients.

The skin acts as the first defence barrier against external environmental pollutants, including chemicals and UV radiation. Cytochrome P450 CYP1A1 and glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) found in melanocytes and skin basal layers were shown to participate both in the metabolism of xenobiotics and in detoxification of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In our study we analysed the distribution of single and combined CYP1A1, GSTM1, GSTT1 and GSTP1 genotypes contributing to inter-individual differences in metabolism of xenobiotics and ROS in 125 Slovenian healthy individuals and in 140 patients with sporadic malignant melanoma.

Successful sphincter-saving treatment of anorectal malignant melanoma with electrochemotherapy, local excision and adjuvant brachytherapy.

Anorectal malignant melanoma is a rare tumor and there is no consensus on whether aggressive or local management is more appropriate. Local sphincter-saving excision has been shown to have a higher recurrence rate than abdominoperineal resection, although there is no long-term survival difference between the two approaches. Therefore, new adjuvant treatment strategies to permit local sphincter-saving excisions are warranted.

The circulating auto-antibodies to p53 protein in the follow-up of lymphoma patients.

Mutant p53 proteins may be targets of the host immune system - consequently a certain proportion of cancer patients (the percentage varies according to the type of cancer) with tumors that carry p53 missense mutations develop circulating p53 antibodies. The present study was aimed at defining the occurrence of circulating antibodies to p53 protein in patients with various types of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL). Altogether, the sera of 108 cases with various histological types of NHL and of 20 healthy controls were assessed for the presence of antibodies to p53 protein with an ELISA method.

Electrochemotherapy with cisplatin: the systemic antitumour effectiveness of cisplatin can be potentiated locally by the application of electric pulses in the treatment of malignant melanoma skin metastases.

The application of electric pulses to skin tumour nodules enhances the antitumour effectiveness of cisplatin. This treatment approach, known as electrochemotherapy, was employed in the treatment of skin metastases and lymph node metastases in malignant melanoma patients. Electric pulses were applied to tumour nodules in order to potentiate locally the antitumour effectiveness of systemic cisplatin-based chemoimmunotherapy.