Cisplatin Electrochemotherapy for Small Non‐Melanoma Skin Lesions
Posted: Monday, August 3, 2020
According to a small, single-center, prospective study, intralesional cisplatin electrochemotherapy seems to be effective and tolerated for patients with non-melanoma skin cancers, especially for the two lesions in the outer ear. Piero Covarelli, MD, PhD, of the University of Perugia, Italy, and colleagues published their findings in Dermatologic Therapy.
“The outer ear area displayed a really good response, independently from cancer histotype, due to both its anatomical configuration and intralesional cisplatin pharmacological characteristics,” wrote the authors.
The single-center prospective study included 8 patients with a total of 18 primary, recurrent, or metastatic lesions. Three patients had squamous cell carcinoma, four had basal cell carcinoma, and one had skin metastases from breast cancer. Six were men and two were women. Patients were excluded if they had lesions more than 5 cm in diameter or more than nine lesions. The largest lesion was a keratoacanthoma 45 mm in diameter. The authors recorded the site, dimensions, and symptoms of skin lesions before and 8 weeks after treatment. The intralesional cisplatin electrochemotherapy dose for each lesion was based on its volume.
Of the eight patients, half showed a complete response, and all showed an overall tumor response to the treatment. All patients experienced improvements in symptoms, including pain and bleeding from the tumor. All tumors were stable at follow-up after 1 year.
Local side effects—itchiness and erythema—were mild and tolerable, and no systemic adverse events, severe toxicity, or tumor necrosis were observed. The investigators acknowledged their study is limited by its small sample size and indicate that larger confirmatory studies are needed.
Disclosure: The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.
