Novocure announces Optune now available at more than 200 cancer centers across US

Novocure announced that more than 200 treatment centers in the US have been certified to prescribe Optune to patients with recurrent glioblastoma (GBM).

GBM is the most common form of malignant primary brain cancer. Approximately 12,500 patients are diagnosed each year in the United States with GBM or tumors that typically progress to GBM.

Recurrent GBM is widely recognized as one of the deadliest forms of cancer and has very limited treatment options. Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) therapy delivered by Optune is FDA-approved for recurrent GBM.

Optune is a novel anti-mitotic therapy that is available in the United States by prescription from centers whose clinical staff has been trained to use the system. Recently trained treatment centers include, NYU Langone Medical Center / Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center and 21st Century Oncology.

"Our goal as clinicians is to treat cancer patients with the most current and effective therapies available," said Constantine Mantz, Chief Medical Officer, 21st Century Oncology.

Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) therapy is delivered by a portable, non-invasive medical device designed for continuous use by patients.

In vitro and in vivo studies have shown that TTFields therapy slows and reverses tumor growth by inhibiting mitosis, the process by which cells divide and replicate.

TTFields therapy creates low intensity, alternating electric fields within a tumor that exert physical forces on electrically charged cellular components, preventing the normal mitotic process and causing cancer cell death.

The US FDA has approved the TTFields therapy delivery system, Optune (previously known as the NovoTTF-100A System), for use as a treatment for adult patients (22 years of age or older) with histologically-confirmed GBM, following histologically or radiologically-confirmed recurrence in the supra-tentorial region of the brain after receiving chemotherapy.

The device is intended to be used as monotherapy, and is intended as an alternative to standard medical therapy for GBM after surgical and radiation options have been exhausted.