Summary:
Bill Doyle, executive chair of the medical company Novocure, explains a new cancer treatment known as Tumor Treating Fields (TTF), invented by Dr. Yoram Palti. TTF involves setting up low intensity electric fields around the area of the tumor. The electric fields are fields of forces that act on electrically charged bodies. The proteins that form the mitotic spindle are highly charged, and the electric field aligns them, which prevents the proteins from forming the spindle. Cancer cells continue to try and divide even with no spindle. They either fail to divide and self destruct, or succeed and divide into two very weak daughter cells that enter into apoptosis. This prevents the uncontrolled division and spread of cancer cells. The treatment has no effect on normal cells. The artificial fields are set up by attaching external transducers (devices that convert one form of energy to a signal in another form, or vice versa) to the skin around the area of the tumor. With these attached, the patient can live a normal life while the cancer is being treated, without the need of hospitalization or the discomfort and unwanted side-effects of chemotherapy, and the two examples of TTF patients are given.
Relevance:
This video is about cancer and the treatment of cancer, part of our unit on cells. The speaker also briefly explains the process of cell division. The way TTF works involves the disruption of the mitotic spindle, which we studied in class. The side effects of chemotherapy and alternate methods of treatment such as radiation or surgery are also discussed.
Link:
http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_doyle_treating_cancer_with_electric_fields.html
Speaker: Bill Doyle
posted January 2012
Would this method be better for treating cancer than chemotherapy or radiation therapy? Why?
ReplyDeleteTTFields are attuned to a certain type of cell so that they don't disrupt normal cell division and aren't harmful to normal tissue in the long run, unlike extensive radiation treatment. Also, TTF does not create the negative side effects of nausea, hair loss, exhaustion, etc. that are common in chemotherapy. TTF has also been shown to be effective when used in combination with chemotherapy.
DeleteWhat exactly happens when you say the magnetic field aligns the proteins? Is it something like they get scattered instead of aligned so that they can't form the spindle anymore?
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly it, the field makes the microtubules spread out so that there is no spindle, and therefore no effective mitosis. Also, the fields are electric, and not magnetic.
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