Electrochemotherapy on Bladder – Preliminary Results

Electrochemotherapy is a technique that associates electropermabilization with the administration of low permeant or non-membrane permeant drugs to membranes. The two main drugs used are bleomycin and cisplatin. When bleomycin is used, an interesting selectivity to the neoplastic tissue is observed. This is because bleomycin mainly acts on cells that are dividing. Bladder cancer in dogs represent about 2% of all neoplasms and usually when diagnosed are staged T2 or T3. More than 50% is in the trigone and this limits the surgical approach. Chemotherapy is considered the main approach for these reasons. As electrochemotherapy has this selective characteristic to the neoplastic tissue, the hypothesis of this approach is to perform the technique directly on the bladder, by cystotomy, to achieve complete remission of the tumor, without major functional damages to urinary lower tract.