The non-invasive and painless treatment has the potential to lower adverse side effects of chemotherapy, which are sometimes so severe that patients need to terminate treatment early or doctors have to reduce the chemo dosage, and this could worsen their disease.
“Our magnetic technology stimulates cellular oxygen respiration to produce energy,” said team leader Associate Professor Alfredo Franco-Obregón. “In certain cancers with elevated respiratory rates — such as breast tumours — the magnetic pulses cause the cancer cells to ‘hyperventilate’ and die. Fortunately, the healthy tissues near the cancer are able to tolerate the increased respiratory rate, without ill consequences. Therefore, the OncoFTX System is more selective for cancer than conventional chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Importantly, this therapy is localised, non-invasive and painless.
Each session of magnetic therapy involves exposing a breast tumour to a pulsed magnetic field at a strength of 3 millitesla, for one hour. This field amplitude is about 50 times greater than the amplitude of the Earth’s magnetic field, but 1000 times smaller than conventional magnetic resonance imaging. Safety and efficacy trials will determine the best treatment frequency for breast cancer patients.
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