Current Challenges in Cancer Therapy: A Biophysical Perspective on Electric Field-Based Strategies

Abstract

Cancer treatment is fundamentally challenged by tumor heterogeneity, therapy resistance, immune evasion, and systemic toxicity. Conventional therapies-including chemotherapy, radiation, targeted agents, and immunotherapy-are often limited by adaptive tumor mechanisms such as genetic mutations, metabolic plasticity, and microenvironmental remodeling. The tumor microenvironment (TME) further complicates treatment by restricting drug penetration, promoting immune suppression, and sustaining cancer stem cells, ultimately contributing to disease progression and recurrence. These challenges highlight the need for alternative therapeutic strategies that extend beyond conventional biochemical interventions.

Electric field therapies have emerged as a novel and promising approach to cancer treatment, disrupting tumor function through mechanisms distinct from traditional therapies. By modulating transmembrane voltage, ion transport, and cytoskeletal integrity, electric fields selectively impair cancer cell proliferation, induce apoptosis, and enhance treatment sensitivity while sparing normal tissues. Additionally, they remodel the tumor microenvironment by stabilizing vasculature, reducing hypoxia, increasing immune infiltration, and modulating cytokine signaling-further enhancing the efficacy of existing treatments.

Beyond tumor control, electric field therapies may suppress metastasis, improve drug delivery, and enhance therapeutic access to the central nervous system by transiently modulating the blood-brain barrier. As research advances, integrating electric fields with standard treatments could provide a synergistic, non-invasive, and multimodal strategy to overcome the fundamental limitations of current oncology paradigms. By exploiting the bioelectrical properties of cancer, electric field therapies hold the potential to reshape precision medicine and improve patient outcomes.

Keywords: Electric Field Therapy, Tumor Microenvironment, Cancer Treatment Resistance, Bioelectric Properties of Cancer, Non-Invasive Cancer Treatment