Tumor treating fields: A new frontier in cancer therapy
Abstract
Tumor treating fields (TTFields) is a noninvasive, regional antimitotic treatment modality that has been approved for the treatment of recurrent glioblastoma by the U.S. FDA and has a CE mark in Europe. TTFields therapy delivers low-intensity (1-3 V/cm), intermediate-frequency (100-300 kHz), alternating electric fields to the tumor using transducer arrays placed on the skin around the region of the body containing the tumor. TTFields therapy affects metaphase, by disrupting mitotic spindle formation, and anaphase, by dielectrophoretic dislocation of intracellular constituents, resulting in apoptosis. TTFields therapy is frequency tuned to specific cancer cell types. The antimitotic effect of TTFields therapy has been demonstrated in multiple cell lines when the appropriate frequency was utilized. A phase III trial of TTFields monotherapy compared to active chemotherapy in recurrent glioblastoma patients established that TTFields therapy is associated with minimal toxicity, better quality of life, and comparable efficacy to chemotherapy. Ongoing and future trials will evaluate TTFields in newly diagnosed glioblastoma, solid tumor brain metastases, nonsmall cell lung cancer, and ovarian and pancreatic cancers.
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Low-intensity (1-3 V/cm), intermediate frequency (100-300 kHz) electric fields have a profoundly inhibitory effect on the growth rate of various mammalian tumor cell lines.
“Kirson et al. [2] reported the discovery that low-intensity (1–3 V/cm), intermediate frequency (100–300 kHz) electric fields have a profoundly inhibitory effect on the growth rate of various mammalian tumor cell lines [2,3,4].”
From An Overview of Sub-Cellular Mechanisms Involved in the Action of TTFields (2016) · cites this paper as [4]
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- Authors
- Davies, A. M., Weinberg, U., & Palti, Y.
- Affiliations
- Novocure (United States) (US)
- Corresponding author
- Davies, Angela M.
- Venue
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2013-05-09
- Volume
- 1291
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 86-95
- ISSN
- 0077-8923 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-6632
- OpenAlex
- W1875003163
- Cited by
- 193
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 9
- FWCI
- 1.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Genetics › Glioma Diagnosis and Treatment
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biophysics › Electromagnetic Fields and Biological Effects
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biotechnology › Microbial Inactivation Methods
- Keywords
- tumor treating fields, glioblastoma, recurrent glioblastoma, antimitotic therapy, AC electric field, mitotic spindle disruption, dielectrophoresis, apoptosis, transducer array, frequency tuning, noninvasive cancer therapy, brain metastases, non-small cell lung cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Clinical Trials as Topic, Electromagnetic Fields, Electric Stimulation Therapy, Humans, Neoplasms
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