Irreversible electroporation uses needles in tumors similar to existing thermal ablation technologies. But instead of "cooking” or “freezing" the targeted tissue IRE disrupts the cell membrane causing a loss of cell homeostasis, thereby destroying the targeted cells.  In IRE, needle electrodes are placed through the skin into the center or at the edge of the targeted cancerous tissue. A selected electrical voltage/current is then sent to the electrode array, causing permanent nanoscale defects (pores) in the cell membranes. The permanently impaired cells are left in the body to be removed by the body's natural immune system. IRE potentially offers significant advantages over radiofrequency and cryoablation, the two leading thermal ablation technologies in the market today, including: 
Faster delivery of ablation energy. 
Clearly defined and predictable treatment margins.
Complete destruction of tissue adjacent to large vessels (no heat sink effect). 

The IRE technology was invented at the University of California, Berkeley, by the group of Professor Boris Rubinsky. In November 2006 AngioDynamics announced FDA Clearance For Irreversible Electroporation Technology. (click here)

Our IRE Device is a simple version of a complex/expensive electroporation generator that costs $6844 from Harvard Apparatus. But it is enough to get the job done. It outputs momentary pulses of 600 volts spaced .12 second apart and they have a pulse width of .25msec when the tumor resistance is 500 ohms between the electrodes. (R x .5u). The voltage is discharged from capacitors into the tumor via two or more needle electrodes that are inserted into the tumor. (Studies on irreversible electroporation).

This unit is only for sale to doctors and cancer clinics because pain killers and muscle relaxants have to be applied. Pain killers are needed because needle electrodes need to be inserted through the skin and into the tumor, and the "shock" of each high voltage pulse can be painful. Muscle relaxants are needed to prevent any unwanted muscle twitching which could alter the positioning of the electrodes.

Electrodes: With the unit comes 2 electrodes from A-M Systems which are Parylene-C insulated with a tungsten substrate and a 12 degree tip. Parylene-C^® (para-cloroxylylene) is a bio-compatible polymer which is vacuum deposited on the substrate to form a pin-hole free insulation with a small tip exposure.

Additional Therapy:
Most cancer patients are acidic and hypoxic (low oxygen), which is evidenced by a higher-than-normal breathing rate. So first the patient needs to alkalinize their body with grape juice fasting to start, then a near-vegetarian diet with alkalinizing supplements. This acts to stop cancer growth and spreading. The hardest part of fighting cancer is sticking to the alkalinizing diet. The patient will need to stick to it as much as is humanely possible. This will retrain his/her eating habits to make sure there is not a recurrence of cancer later.

NOT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE. STILL UNDER DEVELOPMENT.
EMAIL ME IF YOU WANT TO BUY THIS UNIT LATER. PROJECTED PRICE IS $750.

Blood. 2005 Mar 1;105(5):2235-8. Epub 2004 Aug 3.

Flowing cells through pulsed electric fields efficiently purges stem cell preparations of contaminating myeloma cells while preserving stem cell function.

Electric fields can induce irreversible cell membrane pores in direct relation to cell diameter, an effect we exploit in a flowing system appropriate for clinical scale. Multiple myeloma (MM) cell lines admixed with human bone marrow (BM) or peripheral blood (PB) cells were passed through PEFs at 1.35 kV/cm to 1.4 kV/cm, resulting in 3- to 4-log tumor cell depletion by flow cytometry and 4.5- to 6-log depletion by tumor regrowth cultures. [A 3 log depletion means that the remaining alive cells were .1% of the original live cells. A 4 log depletion leaves alive .01% of the original.]