Preclinical Models in Electrochemotherapy: The Role of Veterinary Patients

Abstract

Electrochemotherapy is a tumor treatment that adapts the systemic or local delivery of anticancer drugs by the application of permeabilizing electric pulses with appropriate amplitude and waveforms. This allows the use of lipophobic drugs, which frequently have a narrow therapeutic index, with a decreased morbidity for the patient, while maintaining appropriate anticancer efficacy. Electrochemotherapy is used in humans for the treatment of cutaneous neoplasms or the palliation of skin tumor metastases, and a standard operating procedure has been devised. In veterinary oncology, the electrochemotherapy approach is gaining popularity, becoming a first-line treatment in consideration of its high efficacy and low toxicity. This review summarizes the state of the art in veterinary oncology as a preclinical model.

Keywords:

• anthracenediones
• bleomycin
• cisplatin
• companion animal
• electroporation
• mitoxantrone
• therapeutic index

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work has been supported by an Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro (INAIL) grant, by ‘Grant 2011’, by an Italian Association for Cell Cultures (AiCC) grant and a PROJECT FIRB/MUR (RBIPO6LCA9-009) grant of the Italian Ministry of Health to EP Spugnini, as well as by a FUTURA-onlus grant to EP Spugnini and A Baldi and a Second University of Naples grant to A Baldi. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work has been supported by an Istituto Nazionale per l’Assicurazione contro gli Infortuni sul Lavoro (INAIL) grant, by ‘Grant 2011’, by an Italian Association for Cell Cultures (AiCC) grant and a PROJECT FIRB/MUR (RBIPO6LCA9-009) grant of the Italian Ministry of Health to EP Spugnini, as well as by a FUTURA-onlus grant to EP Spugnini and A Baldi and a Second University of Naples grant to A Baldi. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.