A ‘sci-fi’ cancer therapy fights brain tumors, study finds
WASHINGTON — It sounds like science fiction, but a cap-like device that makes electric fields to fight cancer improved survival for the first time in more than a decade for people with deadly brain tumors, final results of a large study suggest.
Many doctors are skeptical of the therapy, called tumour treating fields, and it’s not a cure. It’s also ultra-expensive — $21,000 a month.
But in the study, more than twice as many patients were alive five years after getting it, plus the usual chemotherapy, than those given just the chemo — 13 per cent versus 5 per cent.
“It’s out of the box” in terms of how cancer is usually treated, and many doctors don’t understand it or think it can help, said Dr. Roger Stupp, a brain tumour expert at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.