The FDA has approved the first new treatment in 15 years for an aggressive form of lung cancer. The device, the NovoTTF-100L System made by Novocure, uses electric fields to stop solid tumors from mesothelioma from dividing. Mesothelioma is a rare but aggressive cancer strongly associated with asbestos exposure. The new device was approved under the Humanitarian Device Exemption, which was created to encourage innovation in rare diseases. Mary Hesdorffer, a nurse practitioner and executive director of the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, says the approval is a new option. "Typically, mesothelioma patients who cannot have surgery receive palliative care to mitigate their symptoms,” she says in a statement. The new treatment gives patients “a treatment option that may improve survival." The FDA approved Optune, another Novocure device, for the treatment of a kind of brain cancer, glioblastoma, in 2011. Source
