New Skull Cap May Offer New Chance For Brain Tumor Patients

According to a clinical trial, a new skull cap device could help improve the survival chances of brain tumor patients.

According to a clinical trial, a new skull cap device could help improve the survival chances of brain cancer patients. It could do so as it shocks the tumor with low-intensity electric fields. Nonetheless, this therapy would also have to combine with an oral chemotherapy.

The new clinical trial study results were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting. This new skull cap device is produced by Optune and works as follows. It is capable of continuously delivering alternating electric fields to the affected brain part. According to the researchers, this can have an anticancer effect as it helps block cell division.

This New Skull Cap Could Improve And Prolong Glioblastoma Survival Rates

The trial study involved patients diagnosed with the aggressive cancer type named glioblastoma. For the trial, they were randomly assigned to one of two treatment methods. A first was based on the Optune skull cap combined with a chemotherapy treatment. The other offered solely the chemo method.

Then, the research team monitored the patients and reported their median overall survival rates. Those that used the Optune cap had a 21-months such rate. In contrast, chemo-only patients had a 16-months median overall survival one.

Median survival rates presented, in general, an overall improvement even on the 1 to 5-years time frame. After a year, the team reported a 43 percent cap survival rate, compared to 31 percent for patients with just chemo. 5 years later, the percentages had fallen to 13 percent versus 5 percent, but the Optune results still stand.

“Now, we see a meaningful improvement in survival at two years and beyond. With the combination of Optune a temozolomide, one out of seven patients is living longer than 5 years.”

This is according to Dr. Roger Stupp, a Neurological Surgery Professor part of Northwestern University.

Image Source: Flickr

Bio
Latest Posts

Karen Jackson

Karen Jackson has always been passionate about technology. All the way through high-school she immersed herself in computers and web-design. Her ambitious nature helped her become a pro in Adobe Photoshop only by watching online videos and working with the program herself. This is also the program that she mostly uses in the creation of websites at her work-place. Technological innovation and gadgets that push the boundaries of what we are comfortable with have always fascinated her, so expect to see some weird gadget reviews coming from her.