Electric field therapy could stop tumor growth in brain cancer

Bron: medcitynews.com/2014/12/electric-field-therapy-stop-tumor-growth-brain-cancer/ .
2 dec. 2014

Brain tumors are usually treated with an intense course of cancer’s Big Three: Surgery, radiation and heavy chemotherapy. Medical device startup Novocure is adding a new treatment option into the mix: Electrofield therapy, in which alternating electric fields shut down cellular division – curbing the growth of cancer. It’s called Optune.

And it seems to be wildly successful. Novocure just announced it’s ending a Phase III trial in newly diagnosed brain cancer patients early, extending the electric field therapy to controls and treated subjects alike. The patients’ lives were extended by about three months on average, a meaningful window of time with such fast-acting cancers.

CEO Bill Doyle describes, in the 2012 TEDMED talk seen above, Novocure’s Phase III results at the time in brain cancer. But here’s how it works:

The company uses low intensity electric fields that disrupt cellular replication. These tumor-treating fields, shortened to TTFields, exert actual physical force on the charged parts of cells, stopping processes like the formation of the mitotic spindle, and actually killing the cells themselves before they divide. See a descriptive video here.

Dit is een prima ontwikkeling, maar het is toch wel merkwaardig dat zo'n niet-thermische behandeling wel positief kan werken (volgens de autoriteiten), maar dat mogelijke negatieve werkingen direct ontkent worden, maar dat wisten we natuurlijk al.



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