Electrochemotherapy as an indivudal healing attempt for an adenoidcystic carcinoma of the parotid duct

 

Objective:

Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a therapeutic option for skin metastases or other malign, solid tumors when other, conventional therapeutic attempts already failed. Bleomycin is administered as an injection and short, intense electric pulses are subsequently applicated via needle electrodes in the tumor. The result of this electric field is an increase of the cell membrane permeability, which allows the chemotherapeutic agent to enter the cell („electroporation“).

Methods:

A 58-year-old female patient presented herself in our clinic with a cT1cN0cM0 adenoidcystic carcinoma of the left parotid duct and excluded every conventional therapy for herself despite the recommendations of the specialist departments. As the tumor increased to a size of more than 2 cm in 6 months, we offered the patient the therapeutic attempt of ECT. In general anesthesia, 22,5 mg Bleomycin were injected intravenously and an electric impulse of 400V was applied to the tumor region via a 10 mm finger tip electrode (Cliniporator, Igea).

Results:

The tumor with an inital size of 2,3 × 1,4 cm (september 2017) did not show a significant change two weeks postoperative (october 2017). Right after the operation, no undesired side effects were observed, except a local swelling of the cheek.

Conclusions:

In individual case reports in the common literature, ECT was able to lead to a complete remission of ACC. In our case, in the first postoperative follow-up after two weeks, we did not see a significant difference to the inital tumor size. Long-term changes remain to be seen and will be reported.

Publication History

Publication Date:
18 April 2018 (online)

© 2018. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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