How a bizarre skull cap could help to zap deadly brain cancer
ASKULL cap that fires electrical currents into the brain to kill cancer cells is being used to t reat one of the most deadly forms of the disease.
Patients with glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer that affects about 4,000 people in the UK every year, has an estimated survival rate of 12 to 18 months.
In the new treatment, an array of electrodes is glued to the patient’s head, while a weak electrical current targets the cancer cells.
The current is applied for 18 hours each day, disrupting the cancer cells’ ability to divide, which eventually kills them.
When used in conjunction with chemotherapy, t he number of people who survive for five years is almost three times greater than with chemotherapy alone.
A trial involving 700 people found that after two years of treatment, 43 per cent of patients receiving electrode therapy alongside the chemotherapy drug temozolomide were still alive, compared to 30 per cent of patients t reated with temozolomide alone.
At five years, the survival rate was 13 per cent compared to five per cent.
The electrode cap, called Optune, is now licensed for use in the UK and Europe, though it is not yet available on the NHS.
British woman Jessica Morris, 51, who lives in the US with her husband and three teenage children, has been wearing the Optune for a year.
She had been out hiking in New York state in January 2016 when she suddenly collapsed.
She lost the ability to pronounce words properly, uttering what she now describes as ‘gibberish’ before suffering a fit.
Jessica was taken to a local hospital, and within hours, a scan revealed that she had an aggressive form of glioblastoma.
The PR agency boss had surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and was fitted with the cap. She wears it for 24 hours a day and uses it in combination with a standard chemotherapy drug.
Her head has been shaved and she hides the array of electrodes with a headscarf, making the lifesaving device almost invisible, save for a portable battery pack she wears round the waist.
It has been a gruelling 16 months for Jessica since her diagnosis left her fighting for her life, but she says she believes that life is improving and that Optune is boosting her chances of living to see her children finish school and graduate from university.
The manufacturer recommends that patients keep their systems turned on for 18 hours each day, but Jessica keeps hers running almost continuously.
She said: ‘ The electrodes are with me all the time and a reminder that I’ve had brain cancer and am lucky to be alive.
‘When I was told by my neurooncologist at a New York hospital that there was a technology that could increase my survival, I naturally leapt at the opportunity. I’m still a young woman, my family are growing up still and I want to be around as long as possible.’
Every few days her husband, British journalist Ed Pilkington, 55, helps her change the pads that stick the electrodes to the scalp.
JESSICA is not sure how long she will be wearing Optune. Her doctor originally told her nine months but recently revised that estimate, saying she might want to keep it on for two years.
Her MRI scans haven’t shown any new brain tumour growth, and she wants to keep it that way. She said: ‘If I’m still doing well, why would I take it off?’
There are just over 10,000 brain tumour diagnoses a year in the UK, and 5,000 deaths.
Less than 20 per cent of patients survive beyond five years of their diagnosis, whereas 86 per cent of breast cancer and 51 per cent of l eukaemia patients survive beyond five years.
Unlike many cancers, avoidable lifestyle factors – such as smoking, obesity, and alcohol consumption – are not thought to increase the risk of developing the disease and the causes of brain cancers are poorly understood.
Brain tumours are the chief cause of cancer deaths in children and people under 40.
In 2015, the number of children dying from cancer was 194, with brain tumours taking 67 young lives and leukaemia 46.
David Jenkinson, chief scientific officer for The Brain Tumour Charity, said: ‘ The trial showed that a patient’s chance of living for at least four years after a glioblastoma diagnosis i ncreased by 70 per cent if they used the Optune cap.’
He added: ‘ This is a welcome advance for a group of patients who have few options and a very poor outlook.’
Though the Optune skull cap is not offered by the NHS, several Briti s h gl i oblastoma pati ents have been treated by Londonbased neurosurgeon professor Christer Lindquist.