European Research on Electrochemotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer (EURECA) project: Results of the treatment of skin cancer

Giulia Bertino; Gregor Sersa; Francesca De Terlizzi; Antonio Occhini; Christina Caroline Plaschke; Ales Groselj; Cristobal Langdon; Juan J Grau; James A McCaul; Derrek Heuveling; Maja Cemazar; Primoz Strojan; Remco de Bree; C Renè Leemans; Irene Wessel; Julie Gehl; Marco Benazzo

doi:10.1016/j.ejca.2016.05.001

European Research on Electrochemotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer (EURECA) project: Results of the treatment of skin cancer

Giulia Bertino, Gregor Sersa, Francesca De Terlizzi, Antonio Occhini, Christina Caroline Plaschke, Ales Groselj, Cristobal Langdon, Juan J Grau, James A McCaul, Derrek Heuveling, Maja Cemazar, Primoz Strojan, Remco de Bree, C Renè Leemans, Irene Wessel, Julie Gehl, Marco Benazzo

Department of Clinical Medicine

79 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Electrochemotherapy is an effective and safe method for local treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumours, where electric pulses cause increased permeability of cell membranes in the tumour mass, enabling dramatically enhanced effectiveness of bleomycin and other hydrophilic drugs. Here, we report results of a European multi-institutional prospective study of the effectiveness of electrochemotherapy in the treatment of skin cancer of the head and neck (HN) area, where standard treatments had either failed or were not deemed suitable or declined by the patient. A total of 105 patients affected by primary or recurrent skin cancer of the HN area were enrolled; of these, 99 were eligible for evaluation of tumour response. By far, the majority (82%) were treated only once, and 18% of patients had a second treatment. The objective response was highest for basal cell carcinoma (97%) and for other histologies was 74%. Small, primary, and treatment-naive carcinomas responded significantly better (p < 0.05), as investigated by univariate analysis. Electrochemotherapy was well tolerated and led to a significant improvement of quality of life, estimated by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life questionnaires. At 1-year follow-up, the percentages of overall and disease-free survival were 76% and 89%, respectively. Electrochemotherapy is an effective option for skin cancers of the HN area and can be considered a feasible alternative to standard treatments when such an alternative is appropriate. The precise role for electrochemotherapy in the treatment algorithm for non-melanoma skin cancer of the HN region requires data from future randomised controlled studies. (ISRCTN registry N.

Original language	English
Journal	European Journal of Cancer
Volume	63
Pages (from-to)	41-52
Number of pages	12
ISSN	0959-8049
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejca.2016.05.001
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2016

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European Research on Electrochemotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer (EURECA) project: Results of the treatment of skin cancerFinal published version, 1.85 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

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Bertino, G., Sersa, G., De Terlizzi, F., Occhini, A., Plaschke, C. C., Groselj, A., Langdon, C., Grau, J. J., McCaul, J. A., Heuveling, D., Cemazar, M., Strojan, P., de Bree, R., Leemans, C. R., Wessel, I., Gehl, J., & Benazzo, M. (2016). European Research on Electrochemotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer (EURECA) project: Results of the treatment of skin cancer. European Journal of Cancer, 63, 41-52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejca.2016.05.001

Bertino, G, Sersa, G, De Terlizzi, F, Occhini, A, Plaschke, CC, Groselj, A, Langdon, C, Grau, JJ, McCaul, JA, Heuveling, D, Cemazar, M, Strojan, P, de Bree, R, Leemans, CR, Wessel, I, Gehl, J & Benazzo, M 2016, 'European Research on Electrochemotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer (EURECA) project: Results of the treatment of skin cancer', European Journal of Cancer, vol. 63, pp. 41-52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejca.2016.05.001

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title = "European Research on Electrochemotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer (EURECA) project: Results of the treatment of skin cancer",

abstract = "Electrochemotherapy is an effective and safe method for local treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumours, where electric pulses cause increased permeability of cell membranes in the tumour mass, enabling dramatically enhanced effectiveness of bleomycin and other hydrophilic drugs. Here, we report results of a European multi-institutional prospective study of the effectiveness of electrochemotherapy in the treatment of skin cancer of the head and neck (HN) area, where standard treatments had either failed or were not deemed suitable or declined by the patient. A total of 105 patients affected by primary or recurrent skin cancer of the HN area were enrolled; of these, 99 were eligible for evaluation of tumour response. By far, the majority (82%) were treated only once, and 18% of patients had a second treatment. The objective response was highest for basal cell carcinoma (97%) and for other histologies was 74%. Small, primary, and treatment-naive carcinomas responded significantly better (p < 0.05), as investigated by univariate analysis. Electrochemotherapy was well tolerated and led to a significant improvement of quality of life, estimated by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life questionnaires. At 1-year follow-up, the percentages of overall and disease-free survival were 76% and 89%, respectively. Electrochemotherapy is an effective option for skin cancers of the HN area and can be considered a feasible alternative to standard treatments when such an alternative is appropriate. The precise role for electrochemotherapy in the treatment algorithm for non-melanoma skin cancer of the HN region requires data from future randomised controlled studies. (ISRCTN registry N.",

author = "Giulia Bertino and Gregor Sersa and {De Terlizzi}, Francesca and Antonio Occhini and Plaschke, {Christina Caroline} and Ales Groselj and Cristobal Langdon and Grau, {Juan J} and McCaul, {James A} and Derrek Heuveling and Maja Cemazar and Primoz Strojan and {de Bree}, Remco and Leemans, {C Ren{\`e}} and Irene Wessel and Julie Gehl and Marco Benazzo",

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T2 - Results of the treatment of skin cancer

AU - Bertino, Giulia

AU - Sersa, Gregor

AU - De Terlizzi, Francesca

AU - Occhini, Antonio

AU - Plaschke, Christina Caroline

AU - Groselj, Ales

AU - Langdon, Cristobal

AU - Grau, Juan J

AU - McCaul, James A

AU - Heuveling, Derrek

AU - Cemazar, Maja

AU - Strojan, Primoz

AU - de Bree, Remco

AU - Leemans, C Renè

AU - Wessel, Irene

AU - Gehl, Julie

AU - Benazzo, Marco

PY - 2016/8/1

Y1 - 2016/8/1

N2 - Electrochemotherapy is an effective and safe method for local treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumours, where electric pulses cause increased permeability of cell membranes in the tumour mass, enabling dramatically enhanced effectiveness of bleomycin and other hydrophilic drugs. Here, we report results of a European multi-institutional prospective study of the effectiveness of electrochemotherapy in the treatment of skin cancer of the head and neck (HN) area, where standard treatments had either failed or were not deemed suitable or declined by the patient. A total of 105 patients affected by primary or recurrent skin cancer of the HN area were enrolled; of these, 99 were eligible for evaluation of tumour response. By far, the majority (82%) were treated only once, and 18% of patients had a second treatment. The objective response was highest for basal cell carcinoma (97%) and for other histologies was 74%. Small, primary, and treatment-naive carcinomas responded significantly better (p < 0.05), as investigated by univariate analysis. Electrochemotherapy was well tolerated and led to a significant improvement of quality of life, estimated by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life questionnaires. At 1-year follow-up, the percentages of overall and disease-free survival were 76% and 89%, respectively. Electrochemotherapy is an effective option for skin cancers of the HN area and can be considered a feasible alternative to standard treatments when such an alternative is appropriate. The precise role for electrochemotherapy in the treatment algorithm for non-melanoma skin cancer of the HN region requires data from future randomised controlled studies. (ISRCTN registry N.

AB - Electrochemotherapy is an effective and safe method for local treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous tumours, where electric pulses cause increased permeability of cell membranes in the tumour mass, enabling dramatically enhanced effectiveness of bleomycin and other hydrophilic drugs. Here, we report results of a European multi-institutional prospective study of the effectiveness of electrochemotherapy in the treatment of skin cancer of the head and neck (HN) area, where standard treatments had either failed or were not deemed suitable or declined by the patient. A total of 105 patients affected by primary or recurrent skin cancer of the HN area were enrolled; of these, 99 were eligible for evaluation of tumour response. By far, the majority (82%) were treated only once, and 18% of patients had a second treatment. The objective response was highest for basal cell carcinoma (97%) and for other histologies was 74%. Small, primary, and treatment-naive carcinomas responded significantly better (p < 0.05), as investigated by univariate analysis. Electrochemotherapy was well tolerated and led to a significant improvement of quality of life, estimated by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life questionnaires. At 1-year follow-up, the percentages of overall and disease-free survival were 76% and 89%, respectively. Electrochemotherapy is an effective option for skin cancers of the HN area and can be considered a feasible alternative to standard treatments when such an alternative is appropriate. The precise role for electrochemotherapy in the treatment algorithm for non-melanoma skin cancer of the HN region requires data from future randomised controlled studies. (ISRCTN registry N.

U2 - 10.1016/j.ejca.2016.05.001

DO - 10.1016/j.ejca.2016.05.001

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 27267144

SN - 0959-8049

VL - 63

SP - 41

EP - 52

JO - European Journal of Cancer

JF - European Journal of Cancer

ER -

European Research on Electrochemotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer (EURECA) project: Results of the treatment of skin cancer

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