Study: Electricity kills cancer cells

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Study: Electricity kills cancer cells

 

http://www.physorg.com/news11697.html

 

Scientists from Old Dominion University and Eastern Virginia Medical

School say they've killed melanomas in mice using high-powered jolts

of electricity.

 

Using extremely short, high-voltage doses of electricity, the

researchers told the Virginian-Pilot they've never had a tumor that

did not respond to the treatment.

 

Richard Nuccitelli, associate professor of electrical and computer

engineering at Old Dominion, said the method might eventually turn

into an effective cancer treatment.

 

The electric bursts often disrupted the blood flow to the tumor cells

and shrunk their nuclei by 50 percent, Nuccitelli said. The tumors

died after two or three weeks of treatments, each session involving

hundreds of electrical pulses, each less than one-one millionth of a

second and carrying 4,000 volts.

 

Nuccitelli told the Virginian-Pilot he and his colleagues believe the

process works by severely damaging DNA in the cells. The treatment

produced no scarring and did not harm adjacent cells. All of the

research mice survived, with no ill effects.

 

The scientists said additional research will be needed before they

can experiment on people.

 

The research is to appear online Wednesday in the journal Biochemical

and Biophysical Research Communications.