Cancer immunotherapy by radiofrequency electrical membrane breakdown (RF-EMB)
AssigneeImmunSys, Inc.
InventorGary Onik
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of non-thermally ablating undesirable tissue in the body by application of pulsed, bipolar, instant charge reversal electrical fields of sufficient energy to cause complete and immediate cell membrane rupture and destruction. Energy is delivered through radio frequency pulses of particular frequencies, wave characteristics, pulse widths and pulse numbers, such that enhanced physical stresses are placed on the cell membrane to cause its immediate and complete destruction thereby spilling the entire cell content and membrane constituents into, the extracellular space without denaturing proteins so as to enable an immunological response to destroy and remove the target tissue and similarly marked tissue elsewhere in the subject.
Claims30
A system for treating soft tissue in a living subject, the system comprising:
- an electric pulse generator;
- a probe comprising an electrode electrically connected to the electric pulse generator;
- wherein the probe and electric pulse generator are configured to apply to the soft tissue an electric field in a range of 1,500 V/cm to 10,000 V/cm by delivering, from the pulse generator to the probe, a series of bi-polar electric pulses, wherein the electric field is sufficient to cause electrical membrane breakdown of a cell membrane of cells of the soft tissue, including immediate destruction of the cell membrane and spillage of intracellular components into an extracellular space,
- wherein the bi-polar electric pulse is characterized by an instant charge reversal between positive and negative polarity.
A system for treating soft tissue in a living subject, the system comprising:
- an electrode;
- a controller comprising an electric pulse generator, wherein the electrode is electrically connected to the controller, and wherein the controller is configured to determine an electric field strength based on a tissue type of the soft tissue and a target position of the electrode;
- determine, based on the determined electric field strength, a bi-polar electric pulse train profile characterized by a number of pulses, and a duration of each pulse, and a voltage of the pulses, wherein the voltage of each pulse is characterized by an instantaneous reversal of polarity;
- and
- deliver from the pulse generator to the electrode a series of electric pulses according to the electric pulse train profile whereby a pulsed electric field is generated, wherein the electric field is in a range of 1,500 V/cm to 10,000 V/cm, and wherein the electric field is sufficient to cause cell death of cells of the soft tissue by electrical membrane breakdown, including immediate destruction of the cell membrane and spillage of intracellular components into an extracellular space.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.