Brain cancers have proven difficult to manage and survival rates haven’t budged much in years. The Optune, though, a device formerly known as NovoTTF-100A from Novocure, a company based on the Jersey Isle, has been improving things for glioblastoma patients. Impressive results from a phase III clinical trial have shown that it extends average survival at two years for such patients from 27% to 43% when also treated with chemo agent temozolomide and radiotherapy.
According to Dr. Roger Stupp, professor of Neurological Surgery at Northwestern University, and one of the researchers of the study, “[the] last time any form of treatment was shown to improve survival for patients with this disease was more than 10 years ago, when adding temozolomide to radiotherapy was shown to improve the two-year survival rate from 10 percent to 27 percent.”
The Optune device delivers low power alternating electric fields at 200Hz that seem to confuse the cell’s ability to undergo division, thereby slowing down the growth of tumors.
Study in New England Journal of Medicine: Radiotherapy plus Concomitant and Adjuvant Temozolomide for Glioblastoma…
Flashbacks: NovoTTF-100A for Treatment of Brain Tumors Wins FDA Clearance…; NovoTTF-100A Validated in More GBM Patients in Phase III Trial…; NovoTTF as Effective as Chemotherapy for Recurrent Glioblastoma…; Novocure’s Second Generation Optune System for Glioblastoma Now FDA Approved…
Product page: Optune…
