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Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

telegraph.co.uk

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Re: Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

#51

Post by LegitShady »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #45

I heard an interview on one of NPR shows last week and the guest talked about using electricity for healing. For example, if I remember correctly, a wound treated in someway with electricity healed faster. It had something to do with stimulating the cells in a particular way. Side note: Does this give any credibility to the idea that magnets can heal?

the answer to your question is no, because the way you affect cells with electricity is not through magnets.

Also, the mechanisms of this and that are not the same - they're literally killing cells with electricity here, not healing.

Re: Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

#52

Post by _Microft »

amelius wrote: post #25
rkagerer wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-paywalled version of that WSJ article: https://archive.is/bDRgi . And a dumbed-down video primer on how it works: https://nanoknife.com/technology/ Basically they insert somewhere between two and a handful 1mm diameter needles, then pulse with high voltage to kill the cells in between. The article mentioned concerns from doctors that it hadn't been through large clinical trials yet. 13 years later, does anyone kn…

> with high voltage How high? Or is it the current that is controlled?

I think you can find more information here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreversible_electroporation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroporation#Physical_mecha...

Re: Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

#55

Post by sebastianconcpt »

Antipodes456 wrote: post #6

Sample size n=1, but my dad was on the research or clinical trial of this exact treatment in Sydney, it worked for his prostate cancer, he's still clear from PSA tests (and possibly had biopsy also. No side effects. Previously he'd had the radioactive beads treatment which failed, the only other option was removal. Both these options have potentially unpleasant side effects. Happy to ask him questions if anyone wants…

Beautiful. Thanks for sharing this.

Re: Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

#56

Post by wisty »

foepys wrote: post #8
thr717272 wrote: post #7

First time it really hits home how large the risk is. 1/6 is a rather large risk.

It's more likely that you die with prostate cancer than because of prostate cancer. Yes, cancer is never good but for most men prostate cancer develops late and is usually growing very slowly and doesn't spread.

The stats are still pretty bad. Prostate cancer kills more people than breast cancer (though it's usually men in their 80s, so the QALYS is not as bad). A prostate cancer diagnosis is not terrible (since it's so damn common) and aggressive treatment and overly-aggressive screening might be a bad idea in most cases (since it's often best to not worry too much - over-treatment and even over-testing has its costs) but there's certainly a need for better treatment in cases where it does get bad (which is a very sizable number of older men).

Doctors don't try to do the test on every man over 55 without a good reason.

Re: Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

#58

Post by [deleted] »

aquaphile wrote: post #37

Electrical pulse ablation technology has been around a while, with multiple studies performed and a large body of patents. The promise and hope for the technology is that is causes cell apoptosis, and early rat studies showed electrical ablation shrinking tumors. The goal was/is to apply it to multiple cancer types. Source: I helped with one of the pioneering companies in the field. A quick internet search for "elect…

[deleted]

Re: Prostate cancer could be treated by destroying tumors with electric currents

#60

Post by the_third_wave »

Oddly enough I've just been looking into a veterinary treatment method for superficial tumours based around cytostatica in combination with electric pulses - delivered by a pulse generator controlled by a Raspberry Pi - which are supposed to increase the efficacy of the cytostatica by 'electroporation' [1]. I'm mostly looking into this because the glossy site and the presentation given at my wife's vet clinic have a relatively high snake oil coefficient although there is some science [2] behind the process. It seems to come down to a combination of a TENS machine [3] (which can be had for around £40-60, ₤80 if you want it remotely controlled through your phone) with needle probes except for the fact that a 10-pack of 4-needle probes costs €2.500 while the machine itself - a Raspberry Pi with a keyboard, a pulse generator and an LCD screen in a compact box - costs around €25.000...

[1] http://vetiqure.se/our-products/

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5092241/

[3] https://www.boots.com/health-pharmacy/electrical-health-diag...

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