Towards ELF magnetic fields for the treatment of cancer

L. MAKINISTIAN; BELYAEV, I.

Congreso; RAD; 2019

Responses of living systems to weak electromagnetic fields (EMF) of extremely low frequencies (ELF, 1-300 Hz) have been investigated for decades. In 2002, ELF was classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans, Group 2B, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). ELF fields higher than 0.3 μT consistently correlated with increased risks of childhood leukemia. Recent data indicated an increased risk in late stage (promotion/progression) of astrocytoma grade IV for occupational ELF exposure. On the other hand, numerous studies performed in the former Soviet Union countries and Eastern Europe have shown that ELF can be used as a therapeutic agent. A variety of diseases, including cancer, have been treated with ELF in these countries. In the USA, the usage of ELF has been approved and used for bone healing.The body of data obtained by different research groups over the world clearly shows that weak ELF result in biological effects only under specific conditions of exposure. This specificity deals with both physical and biological variables. All these conditions must be controlled in replication studies; otherwise reproducibility of ELF effects can be very poor. It was found in a number of studies that growth of human cancer cells of different origin can be inhibited by weak ELF under specific conditions of exposure. Moreover, inhibition of tumor growth was reported in animal studies and a synergy of ELF exposure with standard therapeutic modalities was observed both in vitro and in vivo. Importantly, normal cells were significantly less responsive to ELF than cancer cells suggesting a clear advantage for minimizing side-effects. Several physical mechanisms were suggested to explain the observed dependence of ELF effects on physical variables. However, these mechanisms do not provide exact values of amplitude and frequency windows, in which the ELF effects are often observed. Thus, screening through the different parameters of exposure remains an important issue. Based on our studies and data available in the literature we conclude that weak ELF can affect biological systems in dependence on a number of variables. These variables define the value of the ELF effect and its biological significance resulting in either detrimental or beneficial outcome. Our analysis of the available studies suggests the convenience of screening for the search of effective ELF parameters for further application in cancer treatments.