(NaturalNews) Mainstream medical removal of skin cancers often involve surgeries that leaves scarring. Other less invasive methods such as laser, microwave, or ultra-sound ablation (tissue removal) create less scarring but promote skin discoloration with limited results.

A group of researchers at the Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics at Old Dominion University, VA, worked on mice with actual carcinomas, cancers that originate from skin or organ surfaces, using a new electrical application called pulse electric field or PEF.

Another group of researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) decided to experiment with PEF applications on mice to determine the extent of electrical pulse durations and strength that would induce skin rejuvenation for a variety of applications involving skin degeneration, disintegration and damage.

Let's explore the results of each study chronologically and separately.

The study for tumor removal

The Bioelectrics group at Virginia's Old Dominion University labeled their study "Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Field (nsPEF) Ablation as an Alternative or Adjunct to Surgery for Treatment of Cancer", which was published in Surgery: Current Research.

Creating a high energy pulsed electrical field is managed by surrounding a tissue area with opposite polarity electrodes to induce extremely short bursts (nano-second) of high electrical energy (high voltage) and low energy (low current) to avoid heat production. Of course a tumor would be within that tissue area.

In vitro (glass – petri dish) experiments demonstrated that nsPEF could induce both necrosis and apoptosis in tumor cells. Necrosis indicates externally induced destruction cell death, i.e., the cancer cells are "killed". Apoptosis is suicidal cell death that is programmed in all healthy cells to make way for new ones.

However, cancer cells lack this programming. That's how they spread to form tumors. Externally inducing apoptosis paves the way for those cancer cells to finally self destruct. Many natural approaches to cure cancer induce apoptosis, usually by creating an environment hostile to cancer cells, while a few go the necrosis route.

Allopathic methods, chemotherapy and radiation involve necrosis that also includes killing healthy cells. Crude surgical tumor removals simply cut them out with the possibility of spreading cancer cells throughout the organ involved and elsewhere.

The in vitro studies warranted moving into in vivo (live animal) experiments on mice and rats, mostly with skin and liver tumors. The researchers discovered success beyond necrosis or apoptosis.

Angiogenesis (the creation of new blood vessels for tumor maintenance) was suppressed and immune surveillance was enhanced. The same type of cancer could not be induced again in mouse models after successful nsPEF treatments were completed.

This treatment could extend beyond skin cancers. Treating internal tumors with nsPEF electric fields can be delivered by catheter electrodes and laparoscopy procedures, which involve tiny cameras in thin lighted tubes.

What the MGH study revealed with PEF for other skin issues

Though probing areas not as dramatic as cancer, the MGH study revealed important understandings for improving surgical work on skin and skin rejuvenation therapies for older folks without scarring.

Lead author Alexander Golberg, PhD, of the MGH Center for Engineering in Medicine explained, "We showed that non-thermal pulsed electric field or PEF treatment (they dropped the ns designation for this study) can reset skin metabolism, leading to skin rejuvenation."

The primary difference between other methods and PEF is the extra cellular matrix, a mixture of collagen and polysaccharides that binds cells and tissues together, is not only undisturbed - it's enhanced.

From their abstract conclusion: "... [they] identified the specific pulsed electric field parameters in rats that lead to prominent proliferation of the epidermis [by inducing increased apoptosis to encourage new cellular growth], formation of microvasculature, [tiny veins] and secretion of new collagen at treated areas without scarring."

Both of these studies introduce surgical advances, derived from military technology, that actually enhance tissue health while resolving skin issues as drastic as cancer.

Sources:

http://www.omicsonline.org

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Apoptosis_vs_Necrosis

http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150512/srep10187/full/srep10187.html

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-06/mgh-pef061715.php

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150617135042.htm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1857231/

http://www.nhs.uk