Dr. Isabelle Germano: “The Electric Anticancer Helmet Battles Brain Tumors”
For patients diagnosed with brain tumors, long-term survival rates tend to be bleak. Glioblastoma, the most common primary brain cancer, may reappear even after intense chemotherapy regimens, which typically prolong life by only a few months. But new wearable devices like NovoTTF that can treat patients outside of a hospital's walls could be the key to better treatment. An independent study found that although NovoTTF patients reported less serious side effects, the wearable treatment simply did not improve survival rates when compared with conventional chemotherapy. "It's very well-tolerated, and it usually doesn't interfere with quality of life," said Isabelle Germano, MD, Professor of Neurosurgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who was not involved in the study. "I have patients who played golf while wearing it." Learn more