NCT06660121

Electrochemotherapy for Desmoid Tumors

Treatment of Desmoid Fibromatosis With Electrochemotherapy. Prospective Observational Study

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 30 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The goal of this observational study is to learn about the effects of Electrochemotherapy (ECT) in patients with Desmoid Fibromatosis. The main question it aims to answer is: Is ECT effective in reducing the size of the lesion and improving patients' symptomatology? Patients will be followed with MRI and Quality of Life questionnaires at 3, 6 and 12 months after the intervention.

Detailed description

Desmoid fibromatoses are rare and locally aggressive, characterized histologically by monoclonal myoblasts present in abundant stromal tissue.The current therapeutic strategy has abandoned primary resection, as recurrences after resection are common and often their phenotype is more infiltrative. Nonsurgical approaches remain suboptimal. For asymptomatic disease, current guidelines suggest an initial period of active surveillance. Other minimally invasive local treatments such as cryoablation have been shown to be effective; however, certain patients are not candidates for such treatment because of lesion location/characteristics. An additional minimally invasive treatment with currently little evidence in the literature is arterial embolization. However, this procedure cannot be performed in the case of superficial lesions, nor in the presence of shared vasculature between the lesion and other healthy tissues or organs. In the absence of other treatments in use, electrochemotherapy treatment can be performed, which has proven effective on several other types of soft tissue and bone tumors, malignant or benign, treated at our Institute. Electrochemotherapy is based on the principle whereby reversible electroporation causes the application of short, high-voltage electrical pulses to temporarily align water molecules on the hydrolipid layer of the cell membrane, leading to a reversible local increase in permeability by increasing the intracellular concentration of Bleomycin and its toxicity on tumor cells by a factor of up to several thousand.

Conditions

• Desmoid Fibromatosis

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
PROCEDURE	Electrochemotherapy with bleomycin	Electrochemotherapy (ECT) with bleomycin is a localized treatment approach used for managing desmoid fibromatosis, a benign but locally aggressive tumor. This technique combines electrical pulses with the administration of bleomycin, a chemotherapeutic agent, to enhance drug uptake into tumor cells. The electrical pulses create temporary pores in the cell membranes, allowing bleomycin to enter more effectively, leading to increased cytotoxicity. ECT is typically performed on patients who have not responded to conventional therapies or for whom surgery is not feasible. ECT can lead to significant tumor shrinkage and improvement in symptoms, making it a promising option in the multidisciplinary management of desmoid fibromatosis.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-10-17
• Primary completion: 2028-08-01
• Completion: 2029-08-01
• First posted: 2024-10-26
• Last updated: 2025-12-23

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Italy