Application of tumor⁃treating fields method in the treatment of glioblastoma: from basic to clinical

Abstract

Glioblastoma is one of the most intractable malignant tumors in human beings. Even if the patients received comprehensive treatment including the maximum surgical resection, postoperative concurrent chemoradiotherapy and sequential chemotherapy, the median survival time of patients was only 14.6 months. In recent years, researchers have found that medium frequency electric field with extremely low⁃intensity can rapidly destroy the dividing tumor cells, and named it as tumor ⁃treating fields (TTF). Clinical trials also showed the TTF can significantly improve the quality of life, prolong progression free survival period and the overall survival of patients with glioblastoma. In the past decade, TTF is the only proven treatment that can prolong the survival period and expected to rewrite the tumor treatment modality. In this article, the basic experiments, theoretical models and clinical trials of TTF will be reviewed.

DOI：10.3969/j.issn.1672⁃6731.2019.12.005