New Study Shows TTFields Amplify Immune Attack Against Brain Cancer

Breakthrough research conducted by a team at the University of Southern California (USC) has found that electric fields, administered through a device placed on a patient’s scalp, can supercharge the immune system’s ability to combat glioblastoma and increase the survival time of the patient.

These benefits for patients were attained after combining the electric fields with chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments.

Glioblastoma is a brain cancer whose prognosis is very poor because it grows rapidly and the existing treatments usually have a minimum beneficial impact upon the progress of the cancer. On average, patients with this type of brain tumor survive for only nine months.

TTFields, or Tumor Treating Fields, are electric fields which are targeted at tumors in order to arrest their growth and also send signals to the immune system to launch an attack against those tumor cells. The TTFields work by pushing and pulling key structures within tumors. This compels those targeted structures to slow their rate of multiplication since the electric waves keep them moving in multiple directions.

The electric waves are channeled through mesh electrodes that have been strategically positioned to target the tumor inside the brain of a patient. The intensity and frequency of the waves is precisely set and a patient is required to wear that mesh on their head for about 18 hours each day.

The researchers noted that the electric waves attract more T cells to attack the tumor. When this treatment using electric fields is followed by the administration of immunotherapy, the immune cells remain active for a longer duration and when they die, the T cells which take their place are even more lethal against the cancer cells.

David Tran, the study’s corresponding author, revealed that their findings could be the key to unlocking the usefulness of immunotherapy in the treatment of glioblastoma. While immunotherapy has had major successes in treating other kinds of cancer, it hasn’t fared so well in brain cancers like glioblastoma. This could partly be because the blood-brain barrier prevents many therapeutically-beneficial substances, such as drugs and immune cells, from accessing the brain.

This new approach of using electric fields alongside chemotherapy and immunotherapy has changed the situation by boosting survival times of patients by at least 70%. Interestingly, the patients who had the largest tumors (so large that they couldn’t be surgically removed) exhibited the best response to this triple therapy. This could be because the larger surface area of the tumor permitted the electric fields to have more targets to which fighter cells of the immune system could be directed or attracted.

Keck Medicine at USC is taking part in a Phase 3 trial to further validate the use of these electric fields together with chemo and immunotherapy to treat glioblastoma.

The treatment is promising, and it may not be long before the usability of this combination therapy can be made available to brain cancer patients. More therapy options could also come from companies like CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) that are also conducting their own brain cancer drug development programs.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CNSP

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