A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation

Novocure: Microwave News Article Archive (2004 - )

December 18, 2017

“Effect of Tumor-Treating Fields Plus Maintenance Temozolomide vs Maintenance Temozolomide Alone on Survival in Patients with Glioblastoma: A Randomized Clinical Trial,” JAMA, December 19, 2017.

Supplementing chemotherapy with 200 kHz E-fields increased progression-free survival (by 2.7 months to 6.7 months) and overall survival (by 4.9 months to 20.9 months) in patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma. Both are statistically significant improvements.

November 28, 2016

“Brain Cancer Patients Survive Longer By Sending Electric Field Through Their Heads,” IEEE Spectrum, November 22, 2016.

Novocure’s 200 kHz signals kept 43% of GBM patients alive compared to 30% on the standard treatment.

June 3, 2015

“Mother Fights Brain Cancer with Electric Fields,” a video from Reuters on Novocure therapy, June 2, 2015.

For more on Novocure, going back to 2007, follow this link.

December 27, 2014

“Scalp Device Might Help Patients with Brain Tumors,” Boston Globe, December 27, 2014.

The latest on NovoCure’s EM therapy for brain tumors. Not a cure; it increases overall survival time by about three months. The cost is high: $21,000/month. See also our other stories about NovoCure going back to 2007.

January 31, 2012

Olympian’s Brain Tumor Treated with E-Fields

“I am the happiest man alive,” says Robert Dill-Bundi, the Swiss Olympic cycling champion. Dill-Bundi developed a glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive, usually fatal, type of brain tumor, but is still alive years after being treated with electric fields. The therapy was developed by Novocure, an Israeli company (see: ...

April 18, 2011

FDA OKs E-Field Device To Treat Brain Cancer

A system to treat brain cancer with 100-200 kHz electric fields has been approved by the FDA. The device is made by Novocure. Here is the company's press release announcing the news. And here is a link to a story about the the device, we ran in Microwave News close to four years ago.

August 2, 2007

Physicists Take Note of E-Field Therapy

Physicists are taking notice of the new Israeli work showing that weak electric fields can be used to treat cancer (see our June 15 post). Physics Today, published by the American Institute of Physics, features a detailed article on the Israeli breakthrough in its August issue.

June 15, 2007

Weak Kilohertz Electric Fields Kill Tumor Cells

It’s become axiomatic that wide acceptance of non-thermal effects will come from developing biomedical therapies rather than from studying potential hazards. The health effects work is mostly sponsored by those who don't want to find any. And they usually don't (cf: the USAF, EPRI, CTIA, FGF, MMF, etc.) So no one should be surprised that the latest advance comes from a small high-tech Israeli company, Novocure, which is looking for innovative ways to treat cancer. It's a breakthrough —most likely a major breakthrough.

Novocure uses weak 100-200 kHz electric fields —the company calls them tumor treating fields or TTFields— to stunt the growth of cancer cells, either by slowing down their proliferation or by killing them off entirely. The company has now demonstrated this in four different cancer cell lines. Even more impressive is that tumor growth has been curtailed in mice, rats and, in a small pilot project, ten human patients with recurrent brain tumors (glioblastoma).