Method and apparatus for treating tumors using low strength electric fields

Abstract

A method of treating tumor tissue of an individual is provided. The method is effected by applying to cells of the tumor tissue electrical field pulses having a strength, a repetition frequency and a pulse width selected capable of inducing endocytosis mediated cell death thereby treating the tumor tissue.

Description

FIELD AND BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to methods of using low-strength electric fields to treat tumors. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and an apparatus which utilize low strength pulsed electric fields on the order of 20-70 V / cm, with or without adjunct chemotherapy to treat or cure various tumor and cancerous tissue.[0002]Cancer is second only to heart disease as a cause of death, accounting for 22% of all deaths (Fraumeni J F, Devesa S S, Hoover R N, Kinlien L J. Epidemiology of cancer. In: Cancer—principles and practice of oncology, DeVita V T, Hellman S, Rozenberg S A, (eds.) pp. 150, Lippincott J.R. Co., Philadelphia, 1993.). Colon cancer, melanoma and breast cancer are three particularly problematic types of cancer.[0003]Melanomas are aggressive, frequently metastatic tumors derived from either melanocytes or melanocyte related nevus cells (“Cellular and Molecular Immunology” (1991) (eds) Abbas A. K., Lechtman, A....

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a method for treating neoplastic tumors by applying electrical field pulses to cells of the tumor. The method involves applying electrical field pulses of a strength, repetition frequency, and pulse width sufficient to induce endocytosis-mediated cell death. The method can be used alone or in combination with a cytotoxic agent. The invention also provides an apparatus for treating neoplastic pathologies by placing electrodes in contact with the tissue and using a power source to generate an electrical potential across the electrodes. The technical effects of the invention include inducing cell death, enhancing immune response, and treating neoplastic disorders.

Problems solved by technology

Breast cancer is a significant health problem for women in the United States and throughout the world.

The five-year survival rate for patients with colorectal cancer detected in an early localized stage is 92%; unfortunately, only 37% of colorectal cancer is diagnosed at this stage.

Recurrence following surgery (the most common form of therapy) is a major problem and is often the ultimate cause of death.

In spite of considerable research into therapies for the disease, colon cancer remains difficult to diagnose and treat.

Whereas metastatic primary tumors can in many cases be surgically removed, greatly contributing to satisfactory therapeutic outcomes, metastases, such as disseminated micrometastases, can be difficult or impossible to locate and / or reach and thus surgical removal such metastases is usually not an option.

Thus, metastases pose the most serious challenge to cancer therapy and are the main cause of failure of treatment of this disease.

However, despite major advances in the surgical pre- and postoperative care of patients, surgical treatment of malignant neoplasms remains highly limited (Eilber F R. Principles of cancer surgery.

Furthermore, due to anatomic location, many tumors cannot be treated by surgical resection because removal of an adequate margin of normal tissue cannot be achieved.

Also, surgical treatment is often not an option for tumors intimately involving major blood vessels or essential organs.

As well, many patient present problematic medical histories, such as cerebrovascular or cardiovascular accidents, or uncontrolled diabetes, rendering them poor surgical candidates because of their high postoperative mortality rate.

Also, in many cases, tumor excision can not performed without causing unacceptable levels of impairment of physiologic functions or cosmetic damage.

However, chemotherapeutic agents often cause severe and unacceptable side-effects, such as bone marrow and lymphoid organ damage resulting in immunosuppression, thereby rendering subjects highly vulnerable to lethal opportunistic infections, as well as various other types of organ toxicities.

Thus, the use of cytotoxic drugs is limited only to tolerated doses.

However, all of the aforementioned prior art approaches suffer from significant disadvantages.

For example, all of these prior art approaches have employed electroporation, and hence high-strength electrical fields which, as described hereinabove, are significantly cytotoxic and which, by their extreme nature, are inherently hazardous.

Electroporation suffers from the drawbacks of being inefficient in its potentiation of drug uptake, and in being restricted with respect to the range of molecular weights of the molecules whose uptake it is capable of potentiating.

Moreover, none of these prior art methods has been shown to be effective in curing cancer at a metastatic stage.

Critically, none of these prior art approaches has been shown to be effective against tumor cells in the absence of chemotherapeutic agents.

Also none of these prior art approaches has demonstrated the capacity to upregulate anti-tumor immune responses as demonstrated by resistance to challenge.

Thus, all prior art approaches have failed to provide an adequate solution for treating tumors using electrical fields.

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