ANB, I have used some PEMF over the years for various injuries, most especially a bad knee and left hip. While I have had some improvment- quite a bit in the knee- I have been concerned if it might have some negative effect related to cancer.
I just looked over your link
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc5119968/I see that as is common, it worked great in vitro(test tube) and in vivo, the mice and rats lucked out. But, that s often seen and then if a study is ever done in humans, the tested item disappoints.
However, here they report some clinical trials in humans with some pretty severe cancers. These do not appear to be controlled studies, so no one important" is going to pay much attention to them. But that does not mean we should not, or that such data is worthless. It turns out, according to the study in your link, that PEMF MIGHT be of some benefit, and certainly no harm was seen. Hence their conclusion:
"In vitro studies support antineoplastic and antiangiogenic effects of PEMF therapy. Several mechanisms of PEMF therapy have been elucidated. ................The specific claim, supported by the described in vivo studies, is that all treated groups showed slower tumor growth rate if compared with untreated control group...........Changes in blood pressure, skin electrical resistance, and pulse amplitude in 163 oncology patients exposed to tumor‐specific PEMF frequencies have also been reported suggesting that PEMF therapy does not only target neoplastic cells, but may also have systemic effects 15. However, long‐term PEMF treatment in HCC patients is not toxic, confirming the safety of PEMF therapy that employs 100,000 times lower frequencies if compared with radiofrequency ablation that is also employed for treatment of HCC......................In conclusion, only two clinical studies have used PEMF therapy for cancer treatment. These studies show that PEMF therapy is safe and promising compared to other available cancer therapies. In the future, PEMFs could be used not only as primary therapy but also in combination with other common antineoplastic therapies. Given that new portable and affordable PEMF devices are increasingly available on the market, future controlled clinical studies are expected to further determine the potential of PEMF therapy in oncology.".
It is interesting looking at the details of the clinical trials. "Self‐administered PEMF therapy for 60 min, three times a day, for an average of 278.4 months was offered to only 28 patients
with advanced cancer (breast cancer [n = 7], ovarian cancer [n = 5], pancreatic cancer [n = 3], colorectal cancer [n = 2], prostate cancer [n = 2], glioblastoma multiforme [n = 1], HCC carcinoma [n = 1], mesothelioma [n = 1], neuroendocrine tumor [n = 1], non‐small‐cell lung cancer [n = 1], oligodendroglioma [n = 1], small‐cell lung cancer [n = 1], sarcoma [n = 1] and thyroid tumor [n = 1]). None of the patients who received PEMF therapy reported any side effects; four patients presented stable disease for 3 years (thyroid cancer with biopsy‐proven lung metastases), 6 months (mesothelioma metastatic to the abdomen), 5 months (non‐small‐cell lung cancer), and 4 months (pancreatic cancer with biopsy‐proven liver metastases), respectively................".
Sadly, results for the 2 prostate cancer patients are not mentioned. But for 41 advanced liver cancer patients, results were "Five patients reported complete disappearance and two patients reported decrease in pain shortly after treatment. Four patients showed a partial response to treatment, while 16 patients had stable disease for more than 12 weeks". So, that is very interesting and sounds pretty good, and shows this is worth looking further into, IMO.
In the other study of 28 advanced cancers of various types, "One patient with thyroid cancer, one patient with mesothelioma metastatic to the abdomen, one patient with non‐small‐cell lung cancer and one patient with pancreatic cancer with biopsy‐proven liver metastases presented
stable disease for 3 years, 6 months, 5 months and 4 months, respectively". All of which I think is better than the norms, so it sounds promising. Mesothelioma, despite all known treatments(but not this one of course), killed my 40 year old DIA in 6 months after diagnosis. This one had stable disease for 6 months, so possibly beneficial? I hope so. In all cases, both studies, side effects " In all cases, "None reported".
Will it turn out to be helpful? One can only hope, though it certainly already does not appear to hurt. But my guess is: finding out with solid proof of the type that will be accepted by most of our doctors? Probably not in our life times. In fact, I notice these 2 studies in humans were done 11 and 13 years ago. But no word or further studies since? Sounds about
the norm. But, that does not mean we can not look into it. If you are going to use something like this, you will probably have to do it on your own in your study of N=1.
Post Edited (BillyBob@388) : 12/31/2020 10:46:34 AM (GMT-7)