Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) and pulsed electric field (PEF) technologies have received extensive attention for their potential beneficial effects in cancer therapy. As two emerging anticancer technologies, both CAP and PEF are related to high voltage electricity, so it is useful to compare their anticancer effects and underlying mechanism to further promote their clinical application. Here, based on three-dimensional (3D) multicellular tumor spheroids, the cytotoxicity of a He + O₂ plasma jet or pulsed electric field on cancer cells was tested. It was found that the anticancer effects of the PEF mainly occurred within the first four hours of treatment, while the anticancer effects of the plasma jet were maintained for at least 24 h after irradiation. The PEF was shown to destroy the integrity of the cell membrane and selectively kill cancer cells in the S and G₂/M phases, and the apoptosis was observed in the entire region of the 3D tumor spheroids. In contrast, the He + O₂ plasma jet was shown to induce apoptosis by increasing cellular oxidative stress, and the apoptosis was observed only on the outermost layer of the 3D tumor spheroids.

冷大气等离子体（CAP）和脉冲电场（PEF）技术因其在癌症治疗中的潜在有益作用而受到广泛关注。作为两种新兴的抗癌技术，CAP和PEF都与高压电有关，因此比较它们的抗癌作用和潜在机理对于进一步促进其临床应用是有用的。在此，基于三维（3D）多细胞肿瘤球体，He + O ₂的细胞毒性测试了血浆喷射或脉冲电场对癌细胞的影响。发现PEF的抗癌作用主要发生在治疗的前四个小时内，而等离子体射流的抗癌作用在照射后至少维持24小时。PEF被证明破坏了细胞膜的完整性，并选择性地杀死了S和G ₂ / M期的癌细胞，并且在3D肿瘤球体的整个区域都观察到了细胞凋亡。相反，He + O ₂等离子体射流显示出通过增加细胞氧化应激诱导凋亡，并且仅在3D肿瘤球体的最外层观察到了凋亡。