A new wearable medical device called "tumor treating fields" may improve chances of survival for brain cancer patients with fast-growing tumors, a new study suggests.
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The device works by delivering low-intensity electric fields through the scalp, which can halt the division of cancer cells, thereby inhibiting tumor growth.
To assess the efficacy of the device, researchers examined data on nearly 700 newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients enrolled between July 2009 and November 2014. Patients were split into two cohorts with one group receiving both chemotherapy treatments and treatment with wearable device, and the other receiving treatment with chemotherapy alone, reports The Washington Post.
For the patients who received both treatments, the two-year survival rate was 43 percent. Patients who only received chemotherapy had a two-year survival rate of 31 percent. Additionally, the five-year survival rate was 13 percent for patients treated with both therapies and 5 percent for patients treated with just chemotherapy.
Roger Stupp, MD, the study's head investigator and a neurooncologist at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said in the report that the new data has drawn doubts from certain experts and has not been peer-reviewed, but told The Washington Post he believes the data "firmly establish the survival benefit."