In Vitro Evaluation of Biofield Treatment on Cancer Biomarkers Involved in Endometrial and Prostate Cancer Cell Lines

What is it about?

Increasing cancer rates particularly in the developed world are associated with related lifestyle and environmental exposures. Combined immunotherapy and targeted therapies are the main treatment approaches in advanced and recurrent cancer. An alternate approach, energy medicine is increasingly used in life threatening problems to promote human wellness. This study aimed to investigate the effect of biofield treatment on cancer biomarkers involved in human endometrium and prostate cancer cell lines. Each cancer cell lines were taken in two sealed tubes i.e. one tube was considered as control and another tube was subjected to Mr. Trivedi’s biofield treatment, referred as treated. Control and treated samples were studied for the determination of cancer biomarkers such as multifunctional cytokines viz. interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-2 receptor (IL-2R), prostate specific antigen (PSA), and free prostate specific antigen (FPSA) concentrations using ELISA assay on day 10. Experimental results showed a significant reduction of IL-6 level in endometrium (12%) and prostate (98.8%) cancer cell lines while a significant increase was observed in TNF-α level in endometrium (385%) and prostate (89.8%) cancer cell lines as compared to control. No alteration of PSA level was observed in biofield treated endometrium and prostate cell line. Similarly, no alterations were evident in IL-2R and FPSA levels in endometrium and prostate cell lines after biofield treatment as compared to control. In conclusion, results suggest that biofield treatment has shown significant alterations in the level of cytokines (IL-6 and TNF-α) in both endometrium and prostate cancer cell lines.

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Why is it important?

Cancer has the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body which involves abnormal cell growth. Endometrium cancer (EC) is the most common type of uterine cancer which starts in the endometrium. EC cases are increasing worldwide and even higher in developing countries [1]. However, physicians have developed new diagnostic techniques and treatments, which results in decreased reported cases of cancer in developing countries [2]. Endometrioid adenocarcinoma is the most common type of EC with clear cell histologic appearance made up of cells in glands that look much like the normal uterine lining (endometrium) [3]. The survival rate in an early and advanced stage of diagnosed EC is less than five years [4], and chances of about 50% recurrence after postoperative therapy is still high [5]. Most common cancer in male, especially in the western world causing death is prostate cancer (PC). In the United States, approximately 238,590 new cases of PC with a death of about 29,720 cases [6]. Progression of PC is through a multi-step development such as involvement of growth factor, cytokines, and hormones [7]. Role of immune cells estimation in microenvironment of tumor has been well established. On the primary hormonal basis, these immune cells in tumor respond to produce a wide range of cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors. Interleukins (IL-1, IL-6, and IL-8), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) are the common inflammatory markers used in diagnosis [8]. IL-6 and TNF-α, are considered as the major cancer biomarkers of a network involved in EC and PC development with multiple biological characteristics [9,10]. TNF-α, is a multifunctional cytokine which plays a major role in cell death and survival, as well as in inflammation and immunity. TNF-α increases susceptibility to heat-induced cell death (apoptosis) in a time-dependent manner, an important protective cellular activity. IL-6 is a pleiotropic cytokine, which exerts inflammatory and immune response on various cell types including prostate carcinomas. Serum IL-6 is the surrogate marker in the clinical stage of PC. High concentrations of serum IL-6 are associated with an increased risk of death in patients with cancer. Expression of IL-2R, PSA and FPSA are the robust biomarkers in predicting a diagnosis assay for prostate cancer. Normally, IL-2R and IL-6 concentrations were significantly higher in prostate cancer tissue than in normal tissue. In the last 70 years, cancer treatment strategies have rapidly increased. Chemotherapy always associated with attached side effects such as hair loss, nausea, vomiting, cognitive dysfunction, change in sexual function and adverse impact on patient’s quality of life [11]. Surgery is still the main treatment strategy for early-stage diagnosis of cancer, but for advanced and reoccurrence cases multimodality therapies like radiations and chemotherapy being frequently used [12,13]. Increased use of alternative integrative medicine approaches have been recently introduced and used to promote wellness and minimize side effects from cancer. In the year 2007, 40% U.S. population has used natural products as a complementary and alternate medicine (CAM) [14]. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), now defined biofield therapies in the subcategory of energy therapies as one of the five complementary medicine domains. Biofield is the name given to the electromagnetic field that permeates and surrounds living organisms. It is the scientifically preferred term for the biologically produced electromagnetic and subtle energy field that provides regulatory and communication functions within the organism. Recent studies on cancer research suggest that instead of using other complementary and alternate medicine, cancer patients received highest benefit with energy medicine [15]. The concept of human bioenergy has its origin thousands of year back, till date many recent biofield therapies are in practice for their possible therapeutic potentials such as enhanced personal well-being in cancer patient [16], improved functional ability of arthritis patient [17], decreased pain and anxiety [18]. However, many other significant inhibitory effects on the cancer cell model have been published which suggest that biofield treatment could be a new and effective treatment approach for cancer [19,20]. Mr. Mahendra Trivedi’s unique biofield treatment (The Trivedi’s effect®) has significantly studied in different fields. In agriculture, change on growth, characteristics, and yield of plants were reported after biofield treatment [21,22]. It has also significantly altered the crystalline and powder characteristics of metals [23,24] and transformation of biofield energy has considerably altered the genotype and phenotypes of pathogenic microbes against antimicrobials [25-27]. This experiment was designed to evaluate the impact of biofield treatment on cancer biomarkers in endometrium and prostate cancer cell lines. Concentration of cytokines (i.e. TNF-α and IL-6), interleukin-2 receptor (IL-2R), prostate specific antigen (PSA), and free prostate specific antigen (FPSA) were estimated by using ELISA assay on day 10 after biofield treatment as compared to control.

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