Treatment of medical conditions with electricity was first used by the ancient Romans who used electric eels to treat headaches, gout and in obstetrics.
Electric shock therapy for depression was one of the earliest widespread uses of electricity in medicine and it continues to be used successfully, although with some modifications to reduce side effects. Transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) has been shown to relieve pain of neuromuscular disorders (back, muscle and joint pains) as well as headaches (see my blog post on Cefaly). While TENS uses alternating current, direct current has also been widely utilized in treating various conditions, including migraines.
Despite billions of dollars spent on research, there has been very little progress in developing more effective therapies for glioblastomas, the most common and the deadliest form of malignant brain tumor. The standard therapy for glioblastoma has consisted of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.
In October of last year, the FDA approved the use of the Novocure Tumor Treating Fields system for the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma. This device delivers alternating electric fields through scalp electrodes to the tumor, interrupting cell division. The addition of the electrical stimulation to chemotherapy increased progression-free survival to 7.1 months, compared to 4.2 months in the group who received chemotherapy alone. There was also an increase in overall survival from 16.6 to 19.4 months. Living three months longer does not seem like a lot, but chemotherapy and radiation, which cause severe side effects, are not much more effective. There is hope on the horizon, however. Several companies are developing vaccines to treat glioblastoma. In one small trial half of the patients survived for 5 years. Northwestern Therapeutics is another company with a similar promising approach in using vaccines derived from patients’ own tumor cells to treat their tumor.
