Veterinary Electroporation & Electrochemotherapy OnLine Course in Spanish

This course is intended primarily for veterinarians, biologists, or physicians seeking to learn about electroporation and electrochemotherapy in oncology that speaks Spanish. The content of the course is specially selected for clinical veterinarians, researchers and veterinarians who specialize in veterinary oncology in small and large animals.

Therapeutic tools in veterinary oncology advance day by day and continuous training is needed for the proper performance of the veterinarian oncologist. The goal, contents and training of this course, provide the tools to the students to be able to provide a veterinary health service according to what society demands nowadays, knowing the modern treatment tools and focusing on electroporation and electrochemotherapy as part of the most advanced therapies that are available in the world.

The approach consists of a theoretical introduction to the topic that includes a discussion of scientific work, reviews and clinical cases, in which specific concepts will be exposed, encouraging debate on the issues raised.

This course is the only one in Latin America that has the endorsement of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) in Argentina.

It is organized and directed by Dr Guillermo Marshall, Dr Matías Tellado and Dr Felipe Maglietti.

 

Aims of the course

The participants will:

• acquire the knowledge and skills needed to prescribe and perform electrochemotherapy correctly and efficiently in the veterinary setting.
• learn the basic principles of electricity needed to understand how an effective electric field is produced to electroporate tissues.
• deepen the knowledge and the physical-chemical foundations that underlie the tissue electroporation technique.
• know the main highlights of the presentation, epidemiology, carcinogenesis, diagnosis, biological behaviour and treatment of neoplasms frequently treated with electrochemotherapy in veterinary medicine.
• study leading scientific articles, book chapters, and notes related to electrochemotherapy in order to gain independence in the field.
• incorporate key concepts for reading and interpreting scientific articles in oncology.

 

Methodology and learning strategy

The course consists of 7 modules, covering the topics of the subject. Each chapter takes one week and consists of approximately 150 minutes of online classes. At the end of each module, the participant must answer a brief evaluation to verify that they have incorporated the basic knowledge of each one.

At the end of each week, the participants will have a live meeting where practical topics will be discussed, where they will be able to ask questions and will deepen aspects that need more detail.

Hands-on sessions will be carried out in a virtual classroom, where candidate patients for electrochemotherapy will be evaluated, and live treatments will be carried out on real patients. The duration of the virtual hands-on is 120 minutes once a week.

Participants will have digital material, books, selected scientific articles, Power Point presentations, treatment schemes, and additional information in Spanish (mainly) and English.

A virtual classroom will be generated on the Google-Classroom platform in which information, texts, tables, images, clinical cases and activities will be exchanged. This is an individual administration space, in which each student can take advantage of the activities they want and collaborate with the group from different aspects.

The information will be in Spanish, however, scientific articles will be used to work during the course, being original publications, in many cases, they are in English, which requires a basic understanding of written English; however, it is not an exclusive requirement for the course.

 

Programme

MODULE A: Fundamentals

1. Fundamentals of Chemistry and Physics I
2. Fundamentals of Chemistry and Physics II 
3. Effects of electric pulses in tissues 
4. Commercially available electroporators 

MODULE B: Basic aspects of the application in the patient.

1. Basis of the procedure 
2. Pharmacology of the most used drugs 
3. General concepts of oncology 
4. Treatment of Head & Neck tumors 

MODULE C: Electrochemotherapy as a therapeutic strategy

1. Combination with other therapies 
2. Association with cryosurgery 
3. Intraoperative electrochemotherapy
4. Kidney, bladder and urethral treatment 

MODULE D: Most frequent applications

1. Canine oral melanoma 
2. ECT in Sarcomas 
3. ECT in Canine Mastocytoma 
4. Feline Squamous Cell Carcinoma

MODULE E: Oncoimmunology and electroporation

1. Oncoimmunology applied to electroporation 
2. Gene Electrotransfer in Humans 
3. Gene Electrotransfer in Veterinary Medicine 
4. Non-oncological diseases treated with electrochemotherapy

MODULE F: Treatment of special cases

1. Treatment of tumors of the nasal passage 
2. Treatment of rectal tumors, bone, CNS and annexes of the eye 
3. Equine treatment
4. Pre, intra and post treatment complications and how to resolve them

MODULE G: Electroporation in human medicine, laboratory and industries

1. Electroporation in human medicine 
2. Uses in the food industry 
3. Laboratory uses
4. Biphasic pulses, uses, advantages and disadvantages

 

Evaluation

At the end of the course, there will be an online evaluation.

Certificates

Signed certificates of participation are sent in pdf format.