Evaluation of electrochemotherapy with bleomycin as an adjuvant treatment to surgical resection of feline application sarcoma: retrospective study from 2017 to 2023

ABSTRACT Feline application sarcoma (FAS) is a mesenchymal malignancy associated with chronic inflammation caused by subcutaneous or intramuscular applications. Surgical resection is the most recommended treatment, but high local recurrence demands multimodal therapies to improve clinical results. Among them, electrochemotherapy (ECT) stands out. This retrospective study evaluated the efficacy of ECT with bleomycin as adjuvant therapy to surgical resection in 40 cats with APS, divided into animals undergoing surgery alone (CG, n=20) and animals undergoing surgery associated with ECT (GE, n=20). Mixed breed females, with a mean age of 10.45 years, were the most affected and fibrosarcoma was the predominant histological type. ECT significantly reduced tumor recurrences (85% in CG and 35% in EG) and increased the chance of tumor control by 10.52 times. With minimal side effects, ECT has demonstrated to be a promising therapy for the management of APS in veterinary practice.