Gemcitabine + Cisplatin Combination Electrochemotherapy for Triple Negative Breast Cancers: An in vitro Model Study

Cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide and is growing as indicated by WHO report. In 2012, there were 14M new cases and 8.2M deaths. With over 1M incidences and 500,000 deaths, breast cancer is one of the most common cancers of women. There are several types of breast cancers among which triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) has the worst prognosis due to lack of estrogen, progesterone and HER-2 receptors. About 20% of breast cancers are TNBC. Systemic chemotherapy with normal and high doses is practiced. Considering that these do not serve all patients, the short and long term side effects, and the cost, there is a critical need for alternate therapies and electrochemotherapy (ECT), using electrical pulses for enhanced uptake of chemo drugs has the potential to alleviate the suffering of TNBC patients. In ECT, typically Bleomycin (occasionally Cisplatin) is used. In clinical practice for TNBC, a combination of Gemcitabine and Cisplatin is used. Hence, in this study we explore the efficacy of the Gemcitabine+Cisplatin combination ECT on MDA-MB-231, triple negative, human breast cancer cells. The results indicate cell kill up to 56% at selective doses and pulse conditions. This ECT combination therapy could be optimized and transferred to the clinics.