Electrochemotherapy as palliative treatment in patients with thyroid papillary carcinoma

Abstract

ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION: Local progression of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) after failure of standard therapies may cause pain, ulceration, and bleeding. As patients are fully aware of the tumor growth, they might suffer high grade anxiety. Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a new local palliative treatment for skin metastases of malignant melanoma or other tumors, including squamous head e neck cancer patients. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of ECT in patients with local progression of PTC. METHODS: Four patients with local progression of PTC were treated with ECT based on Bleomycin, and evaluated according to tumor response, local pain and side effects. RESULTS: In all cases, some grade of tumor response was observed, lasting 6, 7, 12 and 8 months, respectively. Also, reduction of local pain and anxiety was registered in all patients. Tumor infiltrated skin necrosis was the only collateral effect of the treatment. ECT induced a tumor response in all PTC patients with improvement of symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: ECT may be an option for local palliative treatment in PTC patients with local tumor progression.

Keywords

• Bleomycin
• Electrochemotherapy
• Head and neck cancer
• Palliative therapy
• Thyroid