A Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University research team has received a $49,500 grant to research a rare cancer. The grant was awarded after decades of research into treating cancer with electromagnetic radiofrequencies. The team is led by Hugo Jimenez, Ph.D., member of the Molecular Therapeutics Research Program and assistant professor in the Department of Oncology. The money is awarded by the Fibrolamellar Carcinoma Foundation to research fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC), a rare liver cancer that occurs most often in adolescents and young adults.
“Patients who are diagnosed with this disease do not have a history of liver disease, and there is currently no standard of care to treat fibrolamellar carcinoma,” explained Dr. Jimenez.
The investigative project is titled “Therapeutic Action to Tumor-Specific Amplitude Modulated Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Fields in Fibrolamellar Carcinoma.” Studies began in March, specifically looking at the electromagnetic radiofrequency fields used to treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with the newly FDA-approved TheraBionic P1 device. The team hopes to demonstrate that the efficacy of the HCC-specified frequencies is also effective for treating FLC.
“FLC is a subtype of HCC. In past research, we have examined patients with FLC and found that the frequencies identified are identical to those found in patients with HCC,” said Dr. Jimenez.
“Because this cancer is rare, cell lines are also rare, and the few that exist can be difficult to find and obtain. Therefore, with the help of the Fibrolamellar Cancer Foundation (FCF), we found and reached out to a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to obtain a cell line engineered to be FLC-like. Using that cell line, we have already been able to test the HCC radiofrequency treatment on the FLC-like cell line and identify that this treatment did indeed have an impact.”
The initial findings of this study will be presented as a poster at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in Chicago at the end of April, with an abstract later published in the Proceedings of the AACR.
“Over the next year, I am confident that we can move from an in vitro model to an in vivo model. Moreover, I would like to be able to identify a few biomarker candidates of HCC radiofrequency treatment response,” expressed Dr. Jimenez. “I hope our findings will lead to FLC patients being able to have a novel treatment option in the future.”