Pilot Study of Irreversible Electroporation to Treat Brain Cancer

Non-thermal irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a promising new technique for the ablation of tissue and tumors [1–5]. This minimally invasive procedure involves placing electrodes into or around the targeted area to deliver a series of short and intense electric pulses to induce the irreversible structural changes in the cell membranes [5]. To achieve IRE, the electric field in the targeted region needs to be above a critical value which is dependent on a variety of conditions such as tissue type and pulse parameters [5]. One of its primary advantages over other ablation techniques lies in its mechanism to kill undesirable cells by primarily affecting the cell membrane without thermally damaging major blood vessels, connective tissue, nerves and the surrounding healthy tissue.