Cancer Treatment: alternating electric field therapy aka tumor-treating fields

[PaleoPhil]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternating_electric_field_therapy

Electrical Scalp Device Can Slow Progression of Deadly Brain Tumors
By DENISE GRADYNOV. 15, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/health/electrical-scalp-device-can-slow-progression-of-deadly-brain-tumors.html
"Novocure’s device has been approved in the United States since 2011, but only to treat recurrent glioblastomas, not newly diagnosed ones. It costs $21,000 a month, and some insurers cover it. So far, Novocure has been providing it free to patients without insurance coverage, according to William F. Doyle, the company’s executive chairman."

Shattering cancer with resonant frequencies: Anthony Holland at TEDxSkidmoreCollege
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w0_kazbb_U

This doesn't look like it is used on the brain tumor type that Paleodonk's father has, unfortunately, and it is only currently approved for recurrent brain tumors in the US.

[cherimoya_kid]

So there IS some value in the idea that electrical devices can treat cancer. Clearly Big Pharma controls the media, because this should have been front page news in every paper in the country.

[PaleoPhil]

Well, the effects were not super-huge cure-alls, and worked better when paired with chemo, so neither the pro-chemo nor anti-chemo crowds seem super thrilled with the results (and many scientists and MDs are apparently pissed at how similar this stuff sounds to past quack remedies--one MD said that it's no better than putting sewage on your head  ). People seem to like things to be black or white extremes, and when something falls in the middle, it tends to get ignored.

I was skeptical myself at first of this treatment when I first saw it mentioned, but so far it's looking promising. Time will tell.

[cherimoya_kid]

The fact that it works at all it is incredibly encouraging. It's just a matter of tweaking the voltage, amps, duty cycle, waveform, electrode placement, etc. to maximize its effects. I bet they didn't test all those parameters to exhaustion at all.