NUS researchers use magnetic pulses to reprogram immune cells against breast cancer

A team at the National University of Singapore has found a way to turn a cancer's own immune allies against it—using nothing but magnetic pulses. The discovery centers on a corrupted class of immune cells called tumour-associated macrophages, or TAMs, which cancer cells recruit and reprogram to protect the tumour and help it spread. The NUS researchers, led by Associate Professor Alfredo Franco-Obregón from the Department of Surgery at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, have shown that brief exposures to pulsed electromagnetic fields can flip these cells back into cancer fighters, essentially reversing the hijacking that tumours perform.

The mechanism turns on a single protein: TRPC1, which sits on the surface of macrophages and does two things at once. It controls whether a macrophage adopts an aggressive, inflammatory state—the kind that hunts down threats—or a gentler, repair-focused state that cancer cells exploit. TRPC1 also happens to be sensitive to magnetic fields. When the NUS team exposed TAMs to a brief ten-minute burst of pulsed electromagnetic fields, TRPC1 channels opened, triggering a cascade of signals that converted the cells from their corrupted, cancer-protecting form into active tumour killers. The reprogrammed cells then hunted down and destroyed cancer cells while leaving healthy tissue alone. The same magnetic signature also disrupted the communication loop between cancer cells and TAMs, blocking the tumour's ability to corrupt new immune recruits.

In preclinical models, the results were striking. Four sessions of thirty-minute PEMF treatment—no chemotherapy, no drugs—completely eradicated tumours in 75 percent of the tested cases. Franco-Obregón described the approach as a potential future where patients could sidestep the debilitating side effects of traditional chemotherapy. The work builds on earlier research from the same team showing that PEMFs could enhance the uptake of doxorubicin, a chemotherapy drug, by cancer cells. This time, they demonstrated that the magnetic pulses alone could do the job.

The timing matters. Breast cancer cases are projected to rise by a third over the next two decades, climbing from 2.3 million cases in 2023 to more than 3.5 million by 2050. Annual deaths may nearly double, from 764,000 to close to 1.4 million. Current treatments face persistent obstacles: tumours develop resistance to drugs, they are heterogeneous and difficult to target uniformly, and the therapies themselves carry significant toxicity. Approaches that target TAMs have struggled with off-target effects, harming healthy cells alongside corrupted ones. The NUS discovery offers a more precise tool.

The research was published in the journal Smart Medicine on June 4, 2026. The PEMF device used in the study has already completed Phase 1 clinical trials in humans, establishing that it is safe. Franco-Obregón and his team are now seeking partners to conduct Phase 2 trials, which will test whether the therapy actually works in patients and can be scaled toward clinical use. The researchers are also exploring whether PEMF treatment could work alongside chemotherapy, potentially amplifying the effect of both approaches. Because the TAMs they are reprogramming appear in most solid tumours, not just breast cancer, Franco-Obregón suggested the therapy might eventually extend to other cancers—a possibility that hinges on successful human trials and the willingness of partners to fund the next phase of development.