similarity to ire ends there emb applies significantly higher energy levels by specifically configured electric field profiles to directly and completely disintegrate the cell membrane rather than to electroporate the cell membrane others have demonstrated that the energy levels required for emb is 100 times greater than for ire using the same pulse configurations pulse number and voltage density delivered by currently available ire equipment and protocols the inability of current ire methods and energy protocols to deliver the energy necessary to cause emb explains why pathologic examination of ire treated specimens has never shown the pathologic charactcristics of emb and is a critical reason why emb had not until now been recognized as an alternative method of cell destruction fig9 is a schematic diagram of a system 10 for generation of the electric field necessary to induce emb of cells 11 within a patient 12 the system 10 includes a bipolar pulse generator 16 operatively coupled to a controller 14 for controlling generation and delivery to the therapeutic probe or probes 20 two are shown of the electrical pulses necessary to generate an appropriate electric field to achieve emb the therapeutic probes are placed in proximity to the soft tissue or cancerous cells 11 which are intended to be ablated through the process of emb and the bipolar pulses are shaped designed and applied to achieve that result in an optimal fashion a temperature probe 22 may be provided for temperature measurement and feedback to the controller of the temperature at or near the electrodes the controller may preferably include an onboard digital processor and a memory and may be a general purpose computer system programmable.