Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'Out-Of-The-Box' Brain Tumor Treatment Improves Survival Rates For First Time In Over A Decade
It sounds like science fiction, but a cap-like device that makes electric fields to fight cancer improved survival for the first time in more than a decade for people with deadly brain tumors, final results of a large study suggest. Many doctors are skeptical of the therapy, called tumor treating fields, and it's not a cure. It's also ultra-expensive 鈥 $21,000 a month. (4/2)
A wearable medical聽device that delivers electrical fields through the scalp helped to extend the survival of patients with lethal brain tumors, according to data presented Sunday. In a study involving major medical centers in the United States and abroad, the novel treatment聽was used to聽administer alternating, low-intensity 鈥渢umor-treating fields鈥 to newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients who also were getting chemotherapy. Such electrical fields may block聽the division of cancer cells and cause their demise, according to Roger Stupp, the study's lead investigator and a neuro-oncologist at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. (McGinley, 4/2)
