Fascinating Possible Cancer Treatment
John Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation
Pennsylvania Patient Builds Machine Harnessing Radio Waves
To Attack Cells
(CBS) For most, a cancer diagnosis can be devastating.
But, as CBS News contributor Benno Schmidt reported on
The Early Show Monday, for John Kanzius, it was a call to
action.
Kanzius isn't a doctor. He doesn't even have a college
degree.
Yet, observes Schmidt, the device he invented has
impressed a notable researcher and inspired his hometown,
Erie, Pa., to the point where it gave him a key to the city
in April.
Asked by Schmidt what made him think he could cure
cancer, Kanzius replied with a laugh, "What made me think I
couldn't cure cancer? Nobody else was doing it!"
A former radio and TV engineer and one-time station
owner, Kanzius, who suffers from leukemia, hated his
chemotherapy and saw its devastating effect on others.
"I ran into some of the same patients over and over again
and, to see their smiles disappear within a few weeks, and
then watch their hair disappear and then, clinging to their
mothers asking, 'What's wrong with me?' was heartbreaking."
Kanzius, who'd been building radios since childhood,
believed radio waves could somehow be harnessed to destroy
cancer, without drugs or invasive surgery.
"I envision this treatment taking no more than a couple
of minutes or so," he says.
Kanzius hopes cancer treatments could work something like
this: A patient would be injected with tiny metal nano-particles,
which would be carried through the bloodstream by a
targeting molecule and attach only to cancerous cells. The
patient would then be exposed to an energy field created by
radio waves, and feel nothing, while the nano-particles
would generate enough heat to destroy their cancerous host
cell.
While noting that targeting cancer cells will be the
biggest challenge, Kanzius demonstrated just how easily the
nano-particles could be used as receivers.
A lab worker injected carbon nano-particles into a
specific spot in a piece of liver, which was then placed
into an energy field of low frequency radio waves.
Within seconds, the areas injected the with nano-particles
were heated to the point of actually cooking the liver,
while leaving the surrounding meat unscathed.
Kanzius' invention has caught the attention of Dr. Steven
Curley, a surgical oncologist and cancer researcher at MD
Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
"This has the most fascinating potential I've seen in
anything in my twenty years of cancer research," Curley told
Schmidt.
Curley has developed current methods of using radio
frequencies to attack cancer, but says he looks forward to
one day using a non-invasive approach like the one Kanzius
is working on.
"This," Curley says, "is what will get into the cancer
cells and again … release heat that will kill the cancer
cells."
He wouldn't reveal animal test results on camera, but
says he's optimistic that his findings will this fall.
In the meantime, he's joined Kanzius in an effort to
raise awareness and funds to expedite further research.
The April symposium at which Kanzius got the key to Erie
brought out 700 people who were not only enthused by the
prospect of curing cancer, but having their city as the
manufacturing hub of the device Kanzius invented.
Former Erie Mayor Joyce Savocchio remarks, "I always say
to John Kanzius, he'd better practice Swedish, because I
honestly believe he's going to be in Sweden accepting the
Nobel Prize!"
Savocchio leads the fundraising efforts in Erie and says,
since the machine would be built there, Erie cud benefit,
big-time.
"The projected income," she points out, "should this be
successful, is anywhere between $2.5 billion and $10 billion
a year."
Experts say human trials using Kanzius' device are at
least two years away, but Kanzius is undaunted, telling
Schmidt, "I'd like to see the first patient treated wile I'm
still alive, and to have the doctor tell them they're cured!
As for Kanzius himself — Schmidt says his health is
considered stable, and he continues to undergo chemotherapy
for his leukemia.
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