With the poor prognosis for most brain tumors, it is apparent that researchers will have to start thinking “outside the box” to start getting better results. A company from Israel has recently developed a device that uses electricity to kill tumor cells. The patient wears a helmet made of electrodes that bathes the cancer in a faint electric field and prevents them from multiplying while sparing healthy cells. Some of the downsides include having to shave your head frequently to ensure skin contact, having to wear the device for 20 hours per day (and carry around the 6 lbs. battery pack), and oh yeah – it costs $10,000-$15,000 per month to use. An initial study shows that patients lived 7.8 months as opposed to 6.1 months, which doesn’t sound that great, but who knows – they can tweak the treatments or it may lead to new treatments.
The device is not yet approved for use in the US, but they do have approval in Europe.
Check out the whole article here.
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