That fancy hat you see here is the NovaTTF-100A. Doesn’t that just roll off the tongue? I’m calling it CancerHat 5000™ from here on out. The CancerHat 5000™ just received FDA approval with an indication to be used in patients who’ve had brain tumor recurrence after chemotherapy treatment. It’s portable — weighing only about 6 pounds (3 kg) — and noninvasive, with the most common side effect being a mild-to-moderate skin rash where the hat’s electrodes make contact with the skin. It works by sending a low intensity, alternating electric field into a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) brain tumor which interrupts mitosis of cancer cells, meaning the cancer cells are prevented from dividing and instead die out before multiplying. GBM tumors are extremely aggressive and deadly, so preventing their growth with a noninvasive method is an awesome breakthrough (and a fashionable hat as well).
Novocure tested their NovaTTF-100A CancerHat 5000™ in a randomized clinical trial of 237 patients with glioblastoma tumors which had recurred or progressed despite prior treatments (surgery, radiation, and/or chemotherapy). After six months, 21% of the NovoTTF patients were still alive compared to 15% of chemotherapy patients. The NovoTTF patients had a tumor response rate of 14% compared to 10% in the chemotherapy group. The NovoTTF patients also reported less suffering compared to chemotherapy patients in the domains of vomiting, nausea, pain, diarrhea, constipation, cognitive functioning, and emotional functioning. In addition, NovoTTF patients can secure themselves membership in a very elite club:
I apologize.
[Silly hat tip to Medgadget]