Long-term survival of patients suffering from glioblastoma multiforme treated with tumortreating fields

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and malignant primary intracranialtumor, and has a median survival of only 10 to 14 months with only 3 to 5% of patientssurviving more than three years. Recurrence (RGBM) is nearly universal, and furtherdecreases the median survival to only five to seven months with optimal therapy. Tumortreatingfields (TTField) therapy is a novel treatment technique that has recently received CEand FDA approval for the treatment of RGBM, and is based on the principle that lowintensity, intermediate frequency electric fields (100 to 300 kHz) may induce apoptosis inspecific cell types. Our center was the first to apply TTField treatment to histologicallyproven GBM in a small pilot study of 20 individuals in 2004 and 2005, and four of thoseoriginal 20 patients are still alive today. We report two cases of GBM and two cases ofRGBM treated by TTField therapy, all in good health and no longer receiving any treatmentmore than seven years after initiating TTField therapy, with no clinical or radiologicalevidence of recurrence.

via World Journal of Surgical Oncology