Cancer disease is causing a lot of death casualties in humans. The medical sector is doing a lot to cure this disease but still no effective and proper cure in sight. Medical science is still trying and succeeding in finding new effective ways to help patients get rid of this painful disease. The treatments used to cure cancer disease are radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Radiation therapy uses particles of high energy, such as protons, electrons, gamma rays, and x-rays. These rays damage the cancer cells and replace them with new and healthy cells. In other cases, surgery proves to be effective in treating cancer. There are many events when a combination
of these treatments is also employed.
These treatments are not 100% effective. They are also not free from side effects. The other painful aspect of these treatments is that most patients do not tolerate them. Seeing the drawbacks of cancer treatments, scientists gather together to invent alternative ways to treat this disease. The outcome of this gathering resulted in the three main methods to treat cancer which include Pulsed Electric field (PEF), Pulsed ElectroMagnetic Field (PEMF), and Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP).
Most effective therapy:
PEMF therapy is the most powerful of the others. It offers many advantages: PEMF therapy can kill cancer cells selectively due to their electromagnetic sensitivity and specificity. PEMF therapy is a non-invasive treatment technique. This therapy is non-toxic and also safe to apply.
In this method, electromagnetic fields induce microcurrents in the body or to a specific tissue. The stimulation with a particular intensity and suitable duration induces a current across the targeted cell membranes. This impulse triggers nerve cells or muscles to propagate action potentials. There are two methods to apply PEMF treatment. It is considered a primary therapy, or we can employ it with other antineoplastic cures. Now PEMF devices are available in the market. With time, they are also budget-friendly in terms of price.
The prospect of PEMF therapy in oncology has further potential in the future due to the need for controlled clinical studies. As for as the physics of a PEMF device is concerned, a PEMF device consists of a current source. An ionized gas, called plasma, is produced due to high voltage. The plasma consists of electrons, ions, and neutral particles.
When CAP applies to cancer cells or tissues, physical factors such as electromagnetic fields and UV rays and chemical aspects such as Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) and Reactive Nitrogen Species (RNS) generates. CAP has more abundant forms of action when exposed to cancer cells, which can better avoid the drug resistance of cancer cells during treatment. The biological effects of time-varying PEMFs are a significant area of research. The primary focus of the examination is on using very low-frequency bands. The clinical applications use pulsed or sinusoidal magnetic fields below thousand Hz with magnetic induction strengths within hundred Gs. The advantage of the technique is that the pulsed magnetic field generally does not cause significant thermal effects in organisms due to the short duration of action and low irradiation power.
We can change the path of charged particles in an organism by changing the external electromagnetic field. The technique also affects the cell membrane potential. Such changes affect the function of membrane proteins, which can lead to changes in cell membrane permeability and membrane-specific ions. It finally affects the regulation of cellular operations. The magnetic field has a strong penetration ability in the organism. Therefore, PEMF therapy is a treatment for cancer patients.
Author: Amelia Croud
Author‘s EMail: ameliacroud@gmail.com
