Michele Jesse and Dr. Ekokobe
Fonkem, at her patient visit.
Dr. Fonkem got on the phone with me
right away.” Mrs. Jesse started treatment
with the device the following week,
grateful for the chance to participate
in the trial. “Everything just kind of
fell into place for us,” she says, as study
coordinator Eromata Ebwe wove the
electrode wires into a braid down the
left side of the patient’s neck.
“We call this her insurance policy,”
says Mr. Jesse.
Getting on with life
come from the brain’s normal cells
that for some reason start dividing out
of control, becoming cancer.” TTF
therapy is also being tested at different
centers in Europe and will soon be
in clinical trials in the United States
for treatment of pancreatic and lung
cancers. Scott & White hopes to be one
of the initial test sites in the country for
recurrent metastatic brain cancer from
the lung.
Patients typically live only 14
months after a diagnosis of glioblastoma
multiforme, even after receiving
what’s considered the “gold standard”
of treatment for this disease, which
includes surgery, chemotherapy, and
radiation. Earlier this year, Mrs. Jesse
underwent the grueling treatment,
and she hopes to prevent recurrence
of the tumor with the help of the TTF
therapy. For two years, she will wear
the Novo TTF device, a series of four
electrode grids worn on the scalp and
connected by wires to a device that
16
The Catalyst November 13 | sw.org
looks like a cable box. The adhesive
patches contain electrodes that create
an electric field aimed specifically at
the original tumor site. Electric fields
confuse the alignment of microscopic
cell structures to hold a cell in place
before it divides. This scaffolding
prevents cells from dividing, and a new
tumor to stop growing. Patients must
wear the device at least 18 hours a day
to get the maximum benefit.
Doing all they can
The good news is that Mrs. Jesse’s
tumor was completely removed during
surgery, and a test that determines some
genetic properties of the tumor cells
showed that her type of cancer was
particularly responsive to chemotherapy.
Understandably, she still wants to do
everything she can to prevent the tumor
from coming back, given that it’s a very
aggressive type of cancer.
Mr. Jesse says, “Right after my wife’s
treatment, I called about the trial, and
After their appointment the Jesses would
be heading back to Denver, where they
relocated from Austin shortly after Mrs.
Jesse’s surgery to be closer to family.
But first they would make a follow-up
appointment with Dr. Fonkem, and
schedule a magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) scan, both in two months’ time.
But today there was a more pressing
matter. Michele and Ian Jesse were
taking their boy to Disneyland, a trip
Taylor was very much looking forward
to. “What are you going to do about it?”
Dr. Fonkem asks Mrs. Jesse, pointing
to the shoulder bag used to carry the
Novo device. “Well, I’m not going to
wear it all over Disneyland. It would
be too heavy,” she tells him. “But you’ll
wear it more at night when you’re back
at the hotel?” Dr. Fonkem asks. “Yes, of
course,” she says. n
Dr. Fonkem is an assistant professor of
medicine at the Texas A&M Health Science
Center College of Medicine.