Irreversible Electroporation

Irreversible electroporation, or IRE, is a soft tissue ablation technique that uses short but strong electrical fields to create permanent and therefore lethal nanopores in the cell membrane, disrupting cellular homeostasis; the resulting cell death results from induced apoptosis or necrosis, brought on by membrane disruption or by secondary breakdown of the membrane from the transmembrane transfer of electrolytes and adenosine triphosphate. Its main use lies in tumor ablation in regions where precision and the conservation of the extracellular matrix, blood flow, and nerves matter, since it does not rely on heat or cold as other ablation techniques do. The first generation of IRE for clinical use, the NanoKnife System, became commercially available for research purposes in 2009, solely for the surgical ablation of soft tissue tumors, and cancerous tissue ablation through IRE appears to produce significant cancer specific immunological responses, which are currently being evaluated both alone and in combination with cancer immunotherapy.