According to research carried out at the University of Alabama in Birmingham a potentially new option is starting to emerge for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the fastest growing form of liver cancer in the U.S that often does not respond positive to chemotherapy.
Researchers administered very low levels of an electromagnetic field emitting from a spoon-like device placed in the patients’ mouths to 41 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in a phase II study, discovering that the tumors in 14 patients had stabilized without significant side effects after six months of administering the treatment to each individual patient in three daily one-hour treatments each day.
The most remarkable tumor shrinkage, with the tumor continuing to shrink without serious side effects, was discovered in a female patient who received regular therapy since August 2006.
The online version of the British Journal of Cancer reported the study conducted by Boris Pasche, M.D., Ph.D., director of the UAB Division of Hematology and Oncology in the Department of Medicine and his researchers in the August 9, 2011 issue in which Pasche, senior author of the research, said,
“The very appealing advantage of this novel therapy is its capability to shrink tumors without collateral damage. This method literally finds cancer cells in the body and blocks their growth without affecting the growth of normal cells.”
Other treatment options have been limited until now, with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration only approving one drug in 20 years called sorafenib. Pasche comments, that although the drug prolongs life by an average of three months, it does not make the patient feel better.
He says,
“With our treatment, seven of the 11 patients who reported pain prior to the start of their treatment reported either a complete disappearance of pain or decreased amounts.”
Preliminary evidence also reveals that the treatment affected not only the primary cancer but also its metastases.
The device is programmed and has a small battery-driven “radio frequency electromagnetic field generator” attached to a spoon-shaped mouthpiece with the patient pushing a button to initiate treatment. Similar to a watch in that it emits low levels of amplitude-modulated radio frequency, the device is able to deliver doses 100 to 1,000 times less than those generated from a cell phone.
“When you take the mouthpiece and put it in your mouth the body becomes an antenna – the whole body receives a tiny but fairly homogenous amount of radio-frequency,”
Pasche explains.
He and his research partners Alexandre Barbault in France and Frederico Costa at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil identified tumor-specific frequencies and evaluated the feasibility of administering such frequencies to patients with advanced cancer in a 2009 study. They decided to examine if these frequencies had an effect on the growth of tumors.
Pasche is sure that this is a promising therapy that could become a standard treatment in the near future. As soon as funding is secured, the therapy will be subject to undergo randomized trials as well as a study being conducted for FDA-registration. Both of which will be carried out at UAB.
Pasche and UAB collaborators Andres Forero, M.D., and John Carpenter, M.D. are also starting to use the technology in breast cancer patients. In a comment, he said,
“Although liver transplant is the most effective treatment, that option will be available for only a fraction of patients. Better therapies are sorely needed for the larger number of HCC patients.”
Written by Petra Rattue