Electrochemotherapy for the management of cutaneous and subcutaneous metastasis: A series of 39 patients treated with palliative intent

Background and Objectives: Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is technique for local control of skin metastasis. This study is primarily aimed at assessing the clinical activity of ECT in a prospective cohort of patients, and evaluating the association between primary tumor histology, number of metastatic lesions and size of tumor deposits and objective response rate. Methods and Results: Thirty‐nine patients with skin metastases from melanoma and other tumors underwent intravenous bleomycin ECT with palliative intent. No serious adverse events (SAE) or CTC grade 3 or 4 were observed. Overall response rate (ORR) was 66.6%. Response rate significantlycorrelatedatunivariateanalysisbothwiththenumber( 10)andthesize( 2cm)ofmetastases.Norelationshipwasobserved for the histology of primary tumor. At multivariate analysis the size of the nodules under 2cm was associated with a positive response and the correlation was statistically significant. Conclusions: ORR was 66.6% and all patients obtained a subjective clinical benefit from the treatment with minimal side effects. The most suitable patients were the ones with nodules <2cm. J. Surg. Oncol. 2014;109:270–274. 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.