Expert: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. - 10/11/2008

Question
Hello: The father of a friend at work has been diagnosed with GBM,not sure what stage,and has declined all treatment.
In searching the internet,I came across a mention of trials of a medical device using low-frequency alternating electric fields to treat brain tumors,including GBM.Are you aware of this approach to cancer? A link to a paper investigating this is: cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/reprint/64/9/3288.pdf
Detail on the device used and current trials may be found at:
http://www.novocuretrial.com/
This seems to me to be a ridiculously simple treatment modality for such a complex disease.
I would appreciate your thoughts on this.
Thanks!


Answer
Thank you for the information! Interesting! This is still a very experimental treatment though - which is admitted even in the advertisement like web page where it is defined as a method under investigation (= experimental method). All what is claimed is that exposed GBM tumor cells are killed and that at least parts of GBM brain tumors in mice are also killed. THAT is however nothing new. A number of already known methods - routinely used - including radiation therapy can do the same. The problem is to cure these tumors because it is HARD to kill them enough! At the moment they are all incurable and fatal. It is possible that this new method alone or in combination with other methods can be of help here but it is far too early to tell. First this new method needs to be further evaluated and tested before it can be put into more general use. And that will take time. Time this patient unfortunately will probably not have. GBM tumors normally do not have stages. What you meant was probably grade. The higher the grade the more malignant the tumor is and the shorter the survival time. The highest grade is 4.
I'm sorry I have nothing better to tell you!