In a new study, researchers found that electricity may slow—and in some cases, stop—the speed at which breast cancer cells spread through the body.
They also found that electromagnetic fields might hinder the amount of breast cancer cells that spread.
The findings suggest that electromagnetic fields might be a useful tool in fighting cancers that are highly metastatic, which means they are likely to spread to other parts of the body.
The research was conducted by a team at The Ohio State University.
The study is among the first to show that electromagnetic fields could slow or stop certain processes of a cancer cell’s metabolism, impairing its ability to spread.
The electromagnetic fields did not have a similar effect on normal breast cells.
The team compared the effects to what might happen if something interfered with a group running together down a path.
The effect is that some of the cancer cells slow down when confronted with electromagnetic fields.
According to the team, the electromagnetic fields are applied to cancerous cells without touching them.
They compared the cancer cells with cars. Each cell’s metabolism acts as fuel to move the cells around the body, similar to the way gasoline moves vehicles.
Take away the fuel, and the car cannot move anymore.
The electromagnetic fields appear to work to slow cancer cells’ metabolism selectively by changing the electrical fields inside an individual cell.
Accessing the internal workings of the cell, without having to actually touch the cell via surgery or another more invasive procedure, is new to the study of how cancer metastasizes.
The study is published in Bioelectricity. One author of the study is Vish Subramaniam.
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