Brain cancer is a nasty disease that’s traditionally treated with a combination of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The process is painful and the prognosis is rarely positive. But scientists may have just found a new noninvasive method of treatment : a helmet that uses a oscillating magnetic field to shrink tumors.

The device was recently tested on a 53-year-old patient suffering from end-stage recurrent glioblastoma, a rare form of tumor that grows quickly and aggressively on the brain or brain stem. This kind of tumor is almost always fatal, but when the patient passed away due to unrelated traumatic head injury, an autopsy of his brain showed that the procedure had removed 31 percent of the tumor mass in a short time. 

“Thanks to the courage of this patient and his family, we were able to test and verify the potential effectiveness of the first non-invasive therapy for glioblastoma in the world,” said corresponding author David S. Baskin, MD, FACS, FAANS in a statement.

The helmet features three strong, rotating permanent magnets connected to a microprocessor-based electronic controller operated by a rechargeable battery. The magnetic fields generated by these magnets were initially applied intermittently for two hours whilst under supervision at the clinic and later administered at home by the patient’s wife for up to a maximum of six hours per day.

Researchers from Houston Methodist Neurological Institute found that the magnetic field disrupts electron transport in the series of reactions mitochondria use to produce the chemical energy that powers our cells. However, this disruption only occurs in the presence of certain metabolism-enhancing compounds produced by tumor cells, which means the disrupted glioblastoma cells die off while healthy cells remain intact.

“Our results in the laboratory and with this patient open a new world of non-invasive and nontoxic therapy for brain cancer, with many exciting possibilities for the future,” said Baskin.

The fact that this device is available for home use is equally significant, since it represents a potential option that’s cheaper and safer for patients, especially in the midst of the COVID pandemic, during which everyone is encouraged to stay at home.

The research has been published in Frontiers in Oncology.