47. Calcium Electroporation for Cutaneous Head and Neck Cancer: an Addition to the Surgical Oncologist’s Repertoire?

Calcium electroporation is a novel cancer treatment using short, high voltage pulses which induces transient permeability of the plasma, nuclear and mitochondrial membranes allowing passage of calcium into the cytosol, nucleus and mitochondria. The high intracellular influx of calcium leads to cancer cell necrosis through acute and severe ATP depletion. Calcium electroporation has previously shown non-inferiority to electrochemotherapy with bleomycin for treatment of cutaneous metastases. Calcium gluconate is inexpensive and confers the advantage of absent cytotoxicity compared to chemotherapeutic agents, whilst eliminating the need for handling of biohazardous waste.