Harnessing electricity to treat brain tumors without chemo
If it doesn’t quack like a duck…
“We’re going to tape electrodes to your scalp and run electricity through your brain nearly every hour of the day.”
If your doctor told you that, you might slowly back away from his desk, ease yourself out of his office, and then run for the hills.
But what’s really amazing about this technique (yes, it’s real) is that it’s tentatively being accepted by mainstream oncologists as a feasible candidate for treating the most common form of brain tumor: glioblastoma.
Now you may be asking yourself (like I was), “Why would mainstreamers even consider using a therapy that would have once been immediately dismissed as outrageous quackery?”
Well, in this cancer, survival rate is very low. Glioblastoma is a fast-growing, aggressive cancer that responds poorly to surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. This is the cancer that took the life of Senator Edward Kennedy–just 15 months from diagnosis to death.
And there’s one more very worrisome factor.
Last year, a long-term study found that people who constantly use their cell phones have a significantly higher risk of developing glioblastoma. So since it’s likely to affect more and more of us, finding an effective treatment now is critical–no matter how outlandish that treatment might seem.
No shock to the system
This electro-therapy treatment is known as the NovoTTF-system. Electrodes attached to the scalp deliver low intensity alternating electric fields that obstruct glioblastoma tumor cell development.
Last summer, a team of Swiss researchers presented a remarkable Novo-TTF study at the annual meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology. And even that reliably skeptical gang of mainstreamers was impressed.
About 240 glioblastoma patients who had already undergone at least one therapy received NovoTTF or chemotherapy. Average overall survival time was 6.6 months and 6.0 months, respectively. The one-year survival rate was 23.6 percent and 20.8 percent, respectively.
Statistically, that’s an insignificant difference. But the fact that this therapy that sounds like something out of science fiction performed just slightly better than chemotherapy was VERY significant.
And, of course, it performed slightly better without the devastating side effects of chemo. In fact, the only adverse side effect of NovoTTF was skin irritation under the electrodes. In the chemo group, subjects suffered all the standard side effects, including nausea, hair loss, lack of energy, and more.
Based on this success, a follow up study is underway. Glioblastoma patients will receive either chemo or a combination of chemo and NovoTTF. The hope is that the combination might create a quantum leap in treatment, significantly improving survival time.
Of course, the very attractive benefit of nearly zero side effects will be out the window.
If the combined treatment doesn’t exceed chemo alone, I’m pretty sure NovoTTF’s days in the mainstream spotlight are numbered. After all, this is the U.S. medical establishment we’re talking about. Big Pharma and their cronies sure don’t want to tell the world that some odd electrical device is preferable to chemo.
You can also be sure that any non-drug technique that’s less expensive than chemo will not be welcomed with open arms–especially as more and more cell phone users would become potential customers.
If NovoTTF ends up posing a threat to oncologists’ chemo profits (which are very lucrative), look for this therapy to be branded as quack medicine and quickly banished.
When that happens, I’ll send you a list of “quacks” who are willing to treat people without making them sicker.
Sources:
“A prospective, randomized, open-label, phase III clinical trial of NovoTTF-100A versus best standard of care chemotherapy in patients with recurrent glioblastoma” Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Summer 2010, asco.org
“Electro vs. Chemo: For better or for worse?” Philipp Graetzel, DocCheck News, 2/4/11,
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