Tumor-Treating Fields: Answering the Concern About Quality of Life

Since the 2005 publication of the randomized European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer/National Cancer Institute of Cancer trial that established concurrent radiotherapy (RT) and temozolomide for upfront treatment of glioblastoma (GBM), little progress has been made. Thus, it was remarkable when the interim results for the EF-14 trial were published, documenting a 4.9-month increase in median overall survival with the addition of tumor-treating fields (TTFields) to standard therapy with combined RT and temozolomide. These findings were strengthened by presentation of the mature analysis at the Society for Neuro-oncology Meeting in 2016, which confirmed that the median survival improved from 16 months after randomization to RT plus temozolomide to 21 months with the addition of TTFields to RT plus temozolomide. The survival advantage continued at later times, such as the 2-year survival rate of 30% vs 42.5% (P = .001).

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