[Nadeem Gabbani (OP)]

Justin wants to know:

Could electricity be used as an alternative cancer treatment for destroying cancerous tumors in the body? Is there any chance this could in fact be an undiscovered real possibility to replace Chemo Therapy treatment?

Can anyone help answer this?

[evan_au]

Electricity tends to take every possible path between the electrodes (but more through the direct path).

Depending on the current and voltage, the effects can range from making cell walls more porous (without killing them), to heating the cell slightly (without killing it) or heating it lots (and killing it), to vaporising the cell out of existence.

Of course, electricity with the wrong frequency and current can stop your heart (or start it again). Or cause more minor damage like clenching all of your muscles. So it needs to be localised in the right way.

Small skin cancers are sometimes burnt off by creating a small electric arc which vaporizes the cells near the arc, and simultaneously sterilises and cauterizes the wound.

Electricity can also be used indirectly in treatment, for example by:
- heating a probe tip so that it kills nearby cells
- produces intense light (eg a laser), which blasts cells through an optical fiber
- Generating X-Rays or proton beams which destroy a tumor.

So I am sure that electricity could be used in many different ways to attack cancer - but cancer is a sneaky disease, and there is probably no "magic bullet" therapy which will permanently halt all types of cancer.

[Bored chemist]

The biggest single problem with "killing cancer" is that cancer cells are very nearly identical to healthy cells.

There's no reason to think that electricity would discriminate.

[alancalverd]

Some work was done at St Bartholomew's Hospital in the 1980s on direct electrolysis of breast tumors, but it has gone very quiet since then.

[Bored chemist]

There was some work on the effects of electricity on cells which did give rise to the discovery of a cancer treatment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisplatin#History

[vhfpmr]

RF ablation is already used to treat cancer (among other things).