Electric field therapy, combined with immunotherapy and chemotherapy, has improved the survival rates of patients with an aggressive brain cancer called glioblastoma. The treatment has been particularly effective for people whose tumors could not be surgically removed because of their location.
The new method has yet to be tested on a larger number of patients, but it already has the potential to increase the chances of recovery in patients who are not suitable for standard methods. Research published in the journal Med.
Scientists conducted a second phase of clinical trials of electric field therapy in combination with immunotherapy and chemotherapy on 26 patients with glioblastoma. The immunotherapy used a drug that suppresses one of the immune system's checkpoints, thereby increasing the strength of the immune response. Combined with electric field therapy, this promoted the accumulation of immune cells called T lymphocytes near the tumors, which otherwise had difficulty getting from the blood to the brain through the barrier between them.
Compared with the usual combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy, the additional use of electric field therapy increased the chances of survival by 70 percent. At the same time, patients lived without relapses for an average of six months longer than those treated in a conventional way. Those patients who remained with large inoperable tumors lived for 13 months longer than those whose glioblastoma was completely removed. This is probably due to the fact that a larger tumor provokes a more active immune response. The third phase of trials of the new therapy is planned to be conducted by 2029 with the participation of almost 800 patients to assess its effectiveness at different stages of the disease.
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