Treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with very low levels of amplitude-modulated electromagnetic fields

Abstract

Background:Therapeutic options for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are limited. There is emerging evidence that the growth of cancer cells may be altered by very low levels of electromagnetic fields modulated at specific frequencies.Methods:A single-group, open-label, phase I/II study was performed to assess the safety and effectiveness of the intrabuccal administration of very low levels of electromagnetic fields amplitude modulated at HCC-specific frequencies in 41 patients with advanced HCC and limited therapeutic options. Three-daily 60-min outpatient treatments were administered until disease progression or death. Imaging studies were performed every 8 weeks. The primary efficacy end point was progression-free survival ⩾6 months. Secondary efficacy end points were progression-free survival and overall survival.Results:Treatment was well tolerated and there were no NCI grade 2, 3 or 4 toxicities. In all, 14 patients (34.1%) had stable disease for more than 6 months. Median progression-free survival was 4.4 months (95% CI 2.1–5.3) and median overall survival was 6.7 months (95% CI 3.0–10.2). There were three partial and one near complete responses.Conclusion:Treatment with intrabuccally administered amplitude-modulated electromagnetic fields is safe, well tolerated, and shows evidence of antitumour effects in patients with advanced HCC.

Tumor-Treating Fields: A Fourth Modality in Cancer Treatment

“…One group, TheraBionic, has previously shown intrabuccal administration of low levels of amplitude-modulated electromagnetic fields (EMF) to either shrink tumor size or maintain stable disease in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (72). Tolerability studies have also been demonstrated in advanced breast cancer (73).…”

Mechanism underlying the bio-effects of an electromagnetic field based on the Huang-Ferrell model

“…Epidemiological studies have shown that exposure to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields ((ELFEMFs) may be associated with Alzheimer's disease (García et al, 2008), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Zhou et al, 2012), childhood asthma (Li et al, 2011) and cancer (Chen et al, 2013), especially childhood leukemia (Schüz, 2011;Grellier et al, 2014) and many other kinds of diseases. However, laboratory studies have not been able to reproduce the results obtained in the epidemiological investigations, but they did show that ELF-EMF (Pesce et al, 2013) plays a beneficial role in wound healing in cancers (Costa et al, 2011) and diseases associated with the nervous system (Di Lazzaro et al, 2013). These data suggest that ELF-EMFs can produce beneficial or harmful pleiotropic effects in organisms or cells.…”

Extremely low frequency electromagnetic field sensitizes cisplatin-resistant human ovarian adenocarcinoma cells via P53 activation

“…Reported clinical benefits from using the specific EMF signals to treat advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, stabilizes the disease and even produces partial responses in a subset of the patients (Pesce et al 2013). The basic mechanisms by which this weak EL-EMF interacts with living matter are currently unknown, although several mechanisms have been proposed to account for the initial interactions with cells (Costa et al 2001). The basic mechanism is the forced-vibration of all free ions on the surface of a cell membrane that is caused by an external oscillating field and it has been shown that this coherent vibration of electric charge is able to irregular gate electrosensitive channels on the plasma membrane and cause disruption of the cells' normal electrochemical balance (Costa et al 2001).…”