Delivery of electric pulses to an established solid tumor augments the permeability of cell membrane and increases the susceptibility of tumors to an anti-cancer agent that is administered in the vicinity of tumors. Forced expression of the wild-type p53 gene in tumor cells that have non-functional p53 gene(s) can also enhance their sensitivity to a DNA-damaging agent. To investigate the feasibility of electroporation-mediated therapy for cancer, electric pulses were delivered to human esophageal tumors developed in nude mice after they received an anti-cancer agent and/or plasmid DNA containing the wild-type p53 gene. The growth of esophageal tumors was suppressed with electroporation-mediated chemotherapy compared with the treatment with an anti-cancer agent or electroporation alone. Intratumoral injection of the wild-type p53 gene into p53-mutated esophageal tumors followed by electroporation also inhibited tumor growth. When mice were administered with the wild-type p53 gene and an anti-cancer agent, subsequent electroporation produced a synergistic therapeutic effect. Combinatory transfer of plasmid DNA and a pharmacological agent by electroporation is thereby a possible therapeutic strategy for the treatment of solid tumors.

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