Cancer Treatment Today

George et al published an early assessment of the safety and tolerability of the NanoKnife technology. It demonstrated that demonstrated that IRE can be performed safely with low toxicity and preliminary evidence of ablative efficacy in line with prior published experience. Zhang et al. and Faiella et al. concluded that in his group of patients, there were fewer complications and significant efficacy. NICE concluded that, “ There is enough evidence to suggest that the procedure works and does not raise any major safety concerns in the short- and medium term. The procedure can have complications and it is uncertain how well it works in the long term. It is also uncertain who would benefit most from the procedure and at what stage of their prostate cancer treatment it would be most effective. So, it can be used with special arrangements, and further data collection is needed.” The special procedures include procedural safeguards to ensure full disclosure consent and oversight and don’t necessarily apply in the North American context.

George AK, Miocinovic R, Patel AR, Lomas DJ, Correa AF, Chen DYT, Rastinehad AR, Schwartz MJ, Uchio EM, Sidana A, Helfand BT, Gahan JC, Yu A, Vourganti S, Barqawi AB, Brisbane WG, Wysock JS, Polascik TJ, McClure TD, Coleman JA. A Description and Safety Overview of Irreversible Electroporation for Prostate Tissue Ablation in Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer Patients: Preliminary Results from the PRESERVE Trial. Cancers (Basel). 2024 Jun 8;16(12):2178.

Zhang, K., Stricker, P., Löhr, M. et al. A multi-center international study to evaluate the safety, functional and oncological outcomes of irreversible electroporation for the ablation of prostate cancer. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis 27, 525–530 (2024).

Faiella E, Santucci D, Vertulli D, Vergantino E, Vaccarino F, Perillo G, Beomonte Zobel B, Grasso RF. Irreversible Electroporation (IRE) for Prostate Cancer (PCa) Treatment: The State of the Art. J Pers Med. 2024 Jan 25;14(2):137