Tumor Treating Fields: At the Crossroads Between Physics and Biology for Cancer Treatment

Frontiers in Oncology
Francesca A CarrieriPhuoc T Tran

Abstract

Despite extraordinary advances that have been achieved in the last few decades, cancer continues to represent a leading cause of mortality worldwide. Lethal cancer types ultimately become refractory to standard of care approaches; thus, novel effective treatment options are desperately needed. Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) are an innovative non-invasive regional anti-mitotic treatment modality with minimal systemic toxicity. TTFields are low intensity (1-3 V/cm), intermediate frequency (100-300 kHz) alternating electric fields delivered to cancer cells. In patients, TTFields are applied using FDA-approved transducer arrays, orthogonally positioned on the area surrounding the tumor region, with side effects mostly limited to the skin. The precise molecular mechanism of the anti-tumor effects of TTFields is not well-understood, but preclinical research on TTFields suggests it may act during two phases of mitosis: at metaphase, by disrupting the formation of the mitotic spindle, and at cytokinesis, by dielectrophoretic dislocation of intracellular organelles leading to cell death. This review describes the mechanism of action of TTFields and provides an overview of the most important in vitro studies that investigate the disrup...Continue Reading

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May 2, 2017·Frontiers in Oncology·Jeff KamtaSihem Ait-Oudhia
Jul 12, 2018·IEEE Reviews in Biomedical Engineering·Cornelia WengerAnders R Korshoej

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Citations

Sep 3, 2021·Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy = Biomédecine & Pharmacothérapie·Sumbal RasheedMuhammad Sajid Hamid Akash

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Clinical Trials Mentioned

NCT03940196
NCT03377491
NCT03606590
NCT02973789
NCT02831959
NCT01755624
NCT03405792
NCT03705351
NCT03477110
NCT04281576

Software Mentioned

INNOVATE
PANOVA
TTFields
LUNAR

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