Irreversible electroporation (NanoKnife) in cancer treatment

Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a promising new minimally invasive modality for the ablation of solid tumors. Unlike the current leading thermal ablation modalities, such as radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and cryoablation, IRE uses nonthermal electric energy to irreversibly destabilize cell membranes, resulting in focused cell death. Over the past 7 years, IRE has been emerging as a novel ablation tool by using the effect of an applied electric field to kill cancer cells, without damaging the surrounding extracellular matrix, vessels, nerves, and neighboring normal tissue. Although IRE has been investigated for a short period of time, its potential use for cancer and tissue ablation has been receiving growing attention leading to a considerable number of studies on its validity and safety, including recent in vivo animal and human studies.