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Brain Cancer Patients Live Longer By Sending Electric Fields Through Their Heads (ieee.org)
IEEE Spectrum reports on a "radical new weapon" against brain tumors -- only available since 2015. They profile a typical patient who "wears electrodes on her head all day and night to send an electric field through her brain, trying to prevent any leftover tumor cells from multiplying [and] goes about her business with a shaved head plastered with electrodes, which are connected by wires to a bulky generator she carries in a shoulder bag."
the_newsbeagle writes:
The Optune system, which bathes the brain tumor in an AC electric field, is the first new treatment to come along that seems to extend some patients' lives. New data on survival rates from a major clinical trial showed that 43% of patients who used Optune were still alive at the 2-year mark, compared to 30% of patients on the standard treatment regimen. At the 4-year mark, the survival rates were 17% for Optune patients and 10% for the others.
Patients have to re-shave their heads every few days and re-apply all the electrodes, but that's never been a problem, according to one patient. "If you have a condition which has no cure, it's a great motivator."
Patients have to re-shave their heads every few days and re-apply all the electrodes, but that's never been a problem, according to one patient. "If you have a condition which has no cure, it's a great motivator."
Have they everheard about what a frying pan does to food? A barbecue? Just plain boiling water?
The site is completely inane. You should feel ashamed forquoting it. Like this bit:
"Even when the microwave oven is working correctly, the microwave levels within the kitchen are likely to be significantly higher than those from any nearby cellular phone base-stations."
Yes. Duh. Radiation from phone base stations is incredibly low in the average home. A phone, with its specialized single-purpose detector, often has trouble catching the signal. So yes, even with the microwave oven working correctly, the microwave levels are above zero. Ooooh scaaary.
You thoroughly earned a good flaming.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
There are serious ethical concerns with giving a placebo where giving no treatment is substantially worse. You'd basically be condemning them to a death if you did that. That's why, in these kinds of circumstances, the experimental treatment is compared to the current accepted standard of treatment.
This kind of treatment has been in the experimental phases since at least 2011, and has undergone clinical trials;
http://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10...
http://ascopubs.org/doi/abs/10...
And I believe this link, from 2011, is a press release announcing the approval of the trial discussed in this particular story. I'm not 100% sure, but the names and terminology match up...
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/...
=Smidge=