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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

#71

Post by fortran77 »

laminarflow wrote: post #69

In a past life, I worked in prostate cancer ("PCa") clinical research. To drive home the point about how large of an unmet need this is: A) In addition to 1/6 men being diagnosed with PCa, an ~equally large percentage of men have undiagnosed cancer at the time of death, it just wasn't severe enough yet to be the thing that killed them. (1) B) Because treatment carries a 50% risk of sexual and/or urinary dysfunction s…

My father died from metastasized prostate cancer. If/when I get it I won’t do “watchful waiting”. I’m going to get the most aggressive treatment possible.

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

#72

Post by kristopolous »

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…

I agree that this is old as the hills. I was reading a text recently that cited medical claims of electricity curing cancers in the 1870s.

I'd assume there's more nuance this time around. At least I'd hope so.

The article points to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreversible_electroporation

You can do quite a bit with electrical signals, perhaps there's some novel instruments and feedback loops being used

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

#73

Post by breck »

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…

Would you be interested in chatting more about the whole experience? breck@cancerdb.com or 1-808-727-1111

I've been in Cancer Research for 5 years and am now starting my own idea to help (utilizing my background in software engineering and data science): CancerDB.com a public domain ad-free knowledge graph. The idea is to get a core group of researchers collating all the data into one place that's accessible by both patients, families, caregivers, and researchers.

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

#74

Post by laminarflow »

fortran77 wrote: post #71
laminarflow wrote: post #69

In a past life, I worked in prostate cancer ("PCa") clinical research. To drive home the point about how large of an unmet need this is: A) In addition to 1/6 men being diagnosed with PCa, an ~equally large percentage of men have undiagnosed cancer at the time of death, it just wasn't severe enough yet to be the thing that killed them. (1) B) Because treatment carries a 50% risk of sexual and/or urinary dysfunction s…

My father died from metastasized prostate cancer. If/when I get it I won’t do “watchful waiting”. I’m going to get the most aggressive treatment possible.

My condolences. Hopefully you never get it, and better treatments are available if you do.

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

#75

Post by theGnuMe »

kristopolous wrote: post #72
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…

I agree that this is old as the hills. I was reading a text recently that cited medical claims of electricity curing cancers in the 1870s. I'd assume there's more nuance this time around. At least I'd hope so. The article points to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreversible_electroporation You can do quite a bit with electrical signals, perhaps there's some novel instruments and feedback loops being used

There's something called tumor treating fields that uses electric fields for treating glioblastoma. Fascinating stuff.

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

#77

Post by copperx »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #16
copperx wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely the slides were of men of an advanced age, right? Otherwise that statement is false.

Why do you think that?

I don't believe every person of every age has observable cancer that can be seen on a slide.

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

#78

Post by copperx »

Dalewyn wrote: post #17
copperx wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely the slides were of men of an advanced age, right? Otherwise that statement is false.

I'm not a doctor, but my understanding has been that we all have cancer cells at any given point in time. Consider how many cells inside you are undergoing cell division; errors in cell division are where cancer cells come from. The question is whether your body sees and kills the cancer cells; most of the time it does, which is why most of us can live pleasantly for most of our lives despite errors cropping up silen…

That's my understanding too. But we're talking about cancer that can be observed on a slide. At that point, that's beyond the error correction mechanisms AFAIK.

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

#79

Post by chiefalchemist »

LegitShady wrote: post #51
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.

Yes. But I also reference how electric currents / fields are being researched for healing / regenerative purposes. The crux of that seems to be how to influence the energy properties cells already have.

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

#80

Post by chiefalchemist »

Rychard wrote: post #50
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?

You may be referring to this[0], which was discussed on HN last week. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35060657

I did see that, but I also heard an interview. In either case, thanks.
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