The therapeutic effects of tumor treating fields on cancer and noncancerous cells

Abstract

Tumor treating fields (TTFields) are among clinically active anticancer modalities that utilize low?intensity, intermediate frequency (IF), and alternating electric fields (AEFs) to selectively disrupt mitosis in cancerous cells. Application of TTFields in the range of 100?900 kHz in cancer therapy and its effect on normal and cancer cells have attracted a great deal of interest in recent years. TTFields affect solid tumors by introducing increased chromatid aberrations that reduce the capacity to repair DNA damage and chromosome segregation, resulting in autophagy and subsequent cell death. In this review, we present an overview of the applications of TTFields in the treatment of cancer. We discuss several practical applications of TTField frequencies combined with metallic nanoparticles (NPs) (magnetic or nonmagnetic NPs) for internalization into cancer cells. In addition, TTFields can be combined effectively with chemotherapy and radiotherapy.