Yet another new way to treat early stage prostate cancer?

They haven’t tried this on an actual patient yet (or at least, if they have, it hasn’t been reported) but a group at the University of Washington in Seattle is investigating the potential of low-dose, alternating electric current as a possible treatment for early stage prostate cancer.

According to as publication by Koreckij et al., they have been testing the effectiveness of  low-dose, alternating electric current (LDAEC) to inhibit the growth of prostate cancer and to determine its effects on normal tissue using a mouse model. So far, they have:

• Tried two different levels of electric current (15 and 25 mA) for two different time periods (15 or 60 min) on prostate cancer tumors
• Regulated the current to maintain an intra-tumor temperature of 45 °C
• Tried applying the current to mouse hamstrings to judge the impact of such treatment of “normal” tissues

According to the authors, their results to date show that:

• The most effective tumor volume reduction in one study was seen in tumors treated with 25 mA for 15 min, and a longer treatment time did not lead to a better treatment effect.
• When they maintained the intra-tumor temperature at 45 °C , LDAEC produced a near-to 100 percent reduction in tumor volume in 8/10 mice. 
• This treatment did cause some degree of skeletal muscle necrosis, but appears to have had no adverse effect on nerves, smooth muscle, and blood vessels.

The authors intend to continue this research, so if there is anyone out there who wants to try a completely new way to treat their localized prostate cancer, feel free to contact the University of Washington. Presumably they will want to test this on patients at some point in the not too distant future!