Toward ELF magnetic fields for the treatment of cancer

Abstract

The possibility of a link between childhood leukemia and other cancers and extremely low-frequency magnetic fields has given rise to several epidemiological studies. The existence of amplitude and frequency windows prompts the need of screening through the different parameters of exposure for two reasons: optimization and avoidance of undesired effects. In principle, the most purist, safest way of going from experiments with cellular cultures to experiments with small animals and then finally to clinical trials with humans would be to use homogeneous fields in these several stages. In this way, dosimetry would be much easier, but the drawback would be substantial: for the treatment of humans, much bigger facilities should be used, in order to house devices big enough to generate homogeneous fields in a volume equal to or greater than a human being.