WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Helping Brain Cancer Patients Survive Longer by Sending Electric Fields Through Their Heads.

Optune’s tumor-treating fields (TTFs) offer an entirely new type of treatment. Unlike chemo, this electrical treatment doesn’t cause collateral damage in other parts of the body. Yet many oncologists remain skeptical of the technology. “The adoption rate has not been stellar to date,” admits Eilon Kirson, Novocure’s chief science officer.

Last Friday’s announcement could change things. At a neuro-oncology conference, researchers reported the results of Optune’s big clinical trial, which looked at survival rates among 695 patients with glioblastoma. Two years after beginning treatment, 43 percent of patients who used Optune were still alive, compared to 30 percent of patients on the standard treatment regimen. Four years out, the survival rates were 17 percent for Optune patients and 10 percent for the others. “To patients, that’s a big difference,” Kirson says. “That’s worth fighting for.”

I remember reading John Gunther’s Death Be Not Proud, where he remarks that any brain cancer with the prefix “glio” is bad news. Sadly, over 50 years later, that’s still true. But this is something.