The Embr Wave is a battery-operated device that one wears like a wristwatch on one’s wrist. It is marketed as a product that can help manage hot flashes. If one senses that they're starting to have a hot flash, they can push a button on the Embr Wave and its surface in contact with the skin starts to cool.
The Embr Wave was initially marketed for women with hot flashes, but it was inevitable that the company would explore marketing it to men, who are experiencing hot flashes from androgen suppressing therapies. Thus, we now have the first paper with some data on the products effectiveness for prostate cancer patients.
The data are posted on Research Square, which is not a medical journal, but a repository for manuscripts that have been submitted for publication, but still have to go through peer review. The publishers of Research Square acknowledge that what they post there “should not be considered conclusive.”
So, what did the researchers report? Based on a modest sample of 39 prostate cancer patients, who experienced what the researchers called “hot flash interference” both during the day and night, they found a statistically significant improvement. Specifically, some 69% of the participants in the study felt that “the thermal device was effective at helping them manage hot flashes.”
A 69% positive response rate is a long way from a definitive cure for hot flashes. One can get that level of an effect from placebos for certain medical interventions. That is why one needs randomized control trial data from men on ADT bothered by hot flashes, and data of that sort have yet to be published for the Embr Wave. Since the product has been on the market for some time for menopausal women, one can look up hundreds of posted reviews at sites, like Amazon and Costco. The reviews to date are quite mixed and with a fair number of negative reviews consistent with the finding from this paper.
We noted that the lead author on the paper is an employee of a company that makes the Embr Wave. In addition, the device is not cheap. Its online price from Costco in the USA is $400USD and it can sell for over $600CAN when bought online in Canada.
Reference:
Peeke, P. et al. 2023 Feasibility of a novel wearable thermal device for management of bothersome hot flashes in patients with prostate cancer Research Square https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3367438/v1