Feasibility Study for Applying Irreversible Electroporation to the Treatment of Breast Cancer

Non-thermal irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a new, minimally invasive, localized tissue ablation technique [1]. The procedure uses electrodes to deliver short-length, high voltage electric pulses to destabilize a cell membrane, leading to the creation of nanopores. When the pulses are strong enough, the cell cannot repair the damage and dies [2]. It has been shown that substantial volumes of tissue and cutaneous tumors may be ablated in a non-thermal manner using irreversible electroporation [1, 3]. In addition, this procedure may be predicted by numerical modeling, promotes an immune response, leaves the extracellular matrix intact, does not affect nerves, may be monitored in real-time, and preserves tissue vasculature [2–5].