02 BOOK OF ABSTRACTS .indd

Electrochemotherapy in veterinary oncology
Tozon Nata{a 1 , Ser{a Gregor 2 , ^ema`ar Maja 2
1
Veterinary Faculty, Small Animal Clinic, Cesta v Mestni log 47, SI-1000 Ljubljana,
natasa.tozon@vf.uni-lj.si; 2 Institute of Oncology, Department of Experimental Oncology,
Zalo{ka 2, SI-1105 Ljubljana
The aim of our study was to introduce electrochemotherapy with cisplatin and
bleomycin into veterinary oncology, where there is a need for effective, easily
applied and inexpensive treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumours of
various histological types in domestic animals. Electrochemotherapy is an antitumour
therapy that utilizes locally delivered short intense direct current electric pulses
to the tumour nodule and chemotherapy. The treatment procedure consists of
intratumourally injection of low doses of cisplatin or bleomycin and immediately
thereafter exposure of tumour nodules to electric pulses.
In the study, 54 dogs, 6 cats and 7 horses with more than 100 cutaneous and
subcutaneous tumour nodules of different sizes and histologies were included.
Twenty-nine dogs had adenoma or adenocarcinoma of perianal region, 14 had
cutaneous mast cell tumour, 4 mammary adenocarcinoma, 3 hemangiopericitoma, 2
hemangioma and 2 sebaceous adenocarcinoma. Four treated cats had squamous cell
carcinoma and two had mammary adenocarcinoma. All 6 horses had sarcoidosis.
Electrochemotherapy was performed once or repeated several times if complete
response was not obtained after first treatment or if the tumour nodule regrew.
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The response to treatment was followed by measuring the size of nodules at 2 to 6
weeks intervals and scored according to WHO guidelines.
Our studies show that electrochemotherapy with cisplatin or bleomycin had good
antitumour effect on all tumours treated regardless of tumour histology, tumour
location and animal species.
Compared to the chemotherapy treatment only, the response to treatment with
electrochemotherapy was significantly better than that of the cisplatin treated group.
Furthermore, there was a significant prolongation of the duration of response in
electrochemotherapy treated tumours.
The main advantages of the use of electrochemotherapy in veterinary oncology are
its simplicity, short duration of treatment sessions, low chemotherapeutic doses, and
insignificant side effects, as well as the fact that that the patient does not have to
stay in hospital.