The path from Symptom to diagnosis is straight forward. The reports of the patients. Once or twice the vision had been blurry suddenly, and at other Times in the middle of the sentence, the thread ripped. As epileptic seizures have occurred, had you gone to the doctor. I sent one to a specialist, and at the end of the head had been lit by means of magnetic resonance imaging by.
After that, he was each Time quickly, the diagnosis: glioblastoma, one of the most common and most aggressive brain tumors. It arises from the support tissues of the brain, the glial cells. Rapidly in such cases, the usual treatment, brain surgery with chemotherapy and also irradiation.
“The Tumor can be surgically never completely
And then remove”? Glioblastomas have, as physicians say, a poor prognosis. “The tumour can be surgically never completely removed,” says Martin glass, 45, head of the neuro-eat oncological centre at the University hospital. Always already individual cancer had migrated cells in the surrounding brain tissue. But Recently, another form of treatment, which gives hope of establishing itself. It’s called tumor treatment fields, short-TTF.
Although the patients her to fall, in everyday life visually. But the therapy is helping many to a legal complaint-free period, which can last in some cases for several years. After a Phase of derogations Doctors TTF since March, may at the expense of in Germany to prescribe the statutory health insurance funds. The costs are high, a good 20,000 euros per month.
hundreds of thousands of pulses per second
“Since my diagnosis last 17 months. So I’m already slightly above the average life expectancy,“ says glioblastoma Patient Hans-Josef Schwab. The 59-year-old and a fully qualified lawyer and technical writer in the motor Vehicle received a year ago at the University hospital Mainz with a TTF unit. He is carrying you, he, about 90 percent of the time says. FOCUS/sk The unit consists of a Generator in a battery that fits in a backpack or a shoulder bag. Four cables run to the electrodes, the paste under a tight-fitting hood on Schwab’s shaved head. Encourage alternating electromagnetic fields. Up to 200,000 Times per second, you shoot to and fro, and to prevent the division of tumor cells, so the cancer’s growth to a standstill bring.
“Sometimes it tingles for a few minutes”
“Sometimes it tingles for a few minutes,” says Schwab about noticeable side effects. His hobby is to exercise more. He is the Chairman of the climbing club in Flörsheim and endurance of skiing and cyclists, referred to as a “convinced user”, and says: “It may be that I will die soon. But maybe the Tumor won’t be back.“
FOCUS/sk Worldwide are likely to be treated 14,000 patients with the tumor therapy fields. The data of 11,000 have been scientifically evaluated. Thus, the “average survival advantage” for about five months.
The chances
again, the medicine was made in the case of brain tumors, little progress, said the Essen-based cancer physicians Martin glass: “In contrast to earlier Chance on a multi-year Survival after glioblastoma diagnosis is not unusual.” Also, due to TTF one in five glioblastoma Patient, according to one study, four years after the diagnosis. Previously, I only managed one in twelve.
The unusual contribution from the particle physics, a lot of trust in the medicine. The research of the tumor therapy fields, in addition to seems to be around 3000 people, to bring the year in Germany at a glioblastoma are diagnosed, other patients Use. So investigations are on-going, in which the method in cancer of the respiratory organs, the ovaries, and the pancreas will be tested in forms.
A piece of the future car
The average age at diagnosis of Glioblastoma is 64 years. In the case of a sub-form of the tumour, the patients are often strikingly young. Christine Pudenz is only 24 years old. After her first Operation in April 2019, the young woman learned that the surgeons were able to remove only three-quarters of the tumor tissue. “Would you be pushing ahead, I wouldn’t have worn probably neurological damage,” she says.
The patient was immediately agreed, as her offering, the physicians, to try it with TTF. To say goodbye to your long hair, appeared to her as a small sacrifice. Currently Pudenz feel fit and would like to soon resume her work as a payroll and Financial accountant.
Who is looking to Internet forums, is also a critique of the tumor therapy fields: To striking, too cumbersome, too uncertain, the method is. And in fact, there are patients, the neuro-oncologist glass, “this therapy is not suitable or reject even any treatment”. I respect the doctor.
Pudenz must now, in the summer, when the head sweats skin more often, every two to three days of the new electrode on the newly shaved skull stick. Your friend helps. The two cars again, a piece of the future. Just moved into a new apartment.
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