Hyperthermia (mEHT) and Intravenous Vitamin C
A recent Phase 2 trial was published on the outcomes of patients with advanced lung cancer who received treatment with modulated Electro-Hyperthermia (mEHT) and Intravenous Vitamin C (IVC). These were patients that had all been heavily pre-treated for their refractory advanced (stage IIIb or IV) non-small cell lung carcinoma.
This is a population of patients we have now had a lot of experience treating with very similar protocols and outcomes, here at the IHC CCC, dating back to 2010. These new results corroborate very well with our own published results.
In this recent Chinese study, a total of 97 patients were randomized to receive IVC and mEHT plus best supportive care (BSC), or BSC alone. There were 49 patients in the active mEHT/IVC arm, who received 1g/kg IVC concurrently with mEHT, 3X/week for a total of 25 treatments. The control arm included 48 patients who received BSC alone.
After a median follow-up of 24 months, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were significantly prolonged by combination therapy compared to BSC alone (PFS: 3 months vs 1.85 months, P < 0.05; OS: 9.4 months vs 5.6 months, P < 0.05).
QoL was significantly increased in the active arm despite the advanced stage of disease.
The 3-month disease control rate after treatment was 42.9% in the active arm and 16.7% in the control arm (P < 0.05).
Overall, IVC and mEHT may have the ability to improve the prognosis of patients with advanced NSCLC.
Ou J, Pang C, et al. A randomized phase II trial of best supportive care with or without hyperthermia and vitamin C for heavily pretreated, advanced, refractory non-small-cell lung cancer. J Adv Res. 2020 Jul; 24: 175–182.
