Folarin Erogbogbo

Asst. Professor, Biomedical Engineering, San Jose State University

April 30, 2019

Cancer has a major impact on every society and innovative solutions are desperately sought after for the “hard to treat” cancers. Two promising approaches to treating cancer include tumor treating fields and nanoparticles.

Tumor Treating Fields (TTF) are mild electrical fields that pulse through the skin and interrupt cancer cells ability to divide. TTFs have been approved by the FDA for the “difficult to treat brain cancer” glioblastoma.  While TTFs have been commercially approved for GBM, the effects of TTFs on many cancer types are mostly unknown.

Nanomaterials are materials controlled by manipulation of size and shape at the nanometer scale (atomic, molecular, and macromolecular scale) that produce structures, devices, and systems with at least one novel/superior characteristic or property. There is generally excitement when a superior property of materials on the nanoscale that can revolutionize the world are discovered, however undesirable properties (such as toxicity or inefficiency) can dim their prospects of real-world applications.

This presentation will focus on 1) introduce lay audiences to the use of TTF as a medical device and 2)  highlight innovative approaches to creating and understanding nanomaterials for cancer.