Electrochemotherapy in head and neck cancer: a review of an emerging cancer treatment

Patients affected by aggressive neoplasms with a high propensity to metastasize to the skin, such as some head and neck cancers, can benefit from electrochemotherapy, a modality that combines electroporation of cell membranes and chemotherapy to facilitate the transport of non-permeant molecules into cells; the host immune response consequently participates in achieving cure of tumors. Electrochemotherapy (A) can be successfully used for skin metastases of head and neck tumors and, with some limitations, for primary and relapsing neoplasms; (B) can be applied on an outpatient basis with a favourable cost-benefit ratio; (C) is a repeatable treatment that, if necessary, can be followed by traditional antineoplastic therapies. Although still a palliative treatment, the good level of tolerability and the high success rates of electrochemotherapy make it worth consideration among treatment options in selected patients.