Kanzius’ waves of change (AUDIO & VIDEO)

BY DAVID BRUCE
david.bruce@timesnews.com [more details]

Published: March 09. 2008 6:00AM

Research Assistant Katrina Briggs places a dish containing cancer cells in a laboratory machine at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where progress is being made toward a new cancer treatment thanks to an Erie man’s idea about radio waves. In photo at top, Briggs prepares cancer cells by placing them in a centrifuge. (ROB ENGELHARDT/Erie Times-News)

HOUSTON -- It's Katrina Briggs' job to discover if John Kanzius has found a new way to treat cancer.

Deep in the basement of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in a lab not much bigger than a bedroom, Briggs blasts cancer cells with the Millcreek Township inventor's radio-frequency generator.

You can stand right outside the lab and have no idea what is happening. The walls are cinderblock and the only window is covered with black fabric.

"It's the only place where the radio waves won't interfere with other research projects," said Briggs, who has worked for 14 years as a research assistant on different projects. "The floor is 30 feet thick, so nothing vibrates."

Research that has grabbed the attention of 60 Minutes and other national news organizations takes place in a dungeon in Houston, and a similar lab at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.


Using radio waves to treat cancer isn't new. Surgeons have burned tumors with radio waves for years.

But targeting individual cancer cells with tiny pieces of metal and burning them with radio waves emitted from outside the body -- that is new, said Steven Curley, M.D., principal investigator for the Kanzius project at M.D. Anderson.

"It's the most exciting thing in which I have ever been involved," said Curley, who has written articles for more than 110 publications in his career.

The wrong floor

AUDIO & VIDEO

Audio: http://www.goerie.com/audio/keating, http://www.goerie.com/audio/houston Video: http://www.goerie.com/video/RFresearch -- Who's Involved John Kanzius came to Erie in 1966 to work as an engineer at WJET-TV and WJET-AM. He stayed there for 35 years, retiring as president and co-owner. Kanzius, 64, now divides his time between homes in Millcreek Township and Sanibel, Fla. He was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 2002 and continues to be treated for the cancer. He invented his radio-frequency generator in 2003 after growing frustrated with the effects of traditional cancer treatments. "I knew that radio waves could heat metal you had if you stood too close to a (radio) transmitter," Kanzius said. "I thought, maybe it could do the same in cancer cells." Steven Curley, M.D., is a surgical oncologist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and principal investigator for John Kanzius' radio-frequency generator project. Curley, 51, divides his time between surgery and research. He has written or co-written more than 110 medical and scientific articles and 30 book chapters, mostly dealing with cancer of the gallbladder, bile duct or liver. "Patient care always comes first," Curley said. "But I get a charge out of both surgery and research. Pushing the envelope in research is very stimulating, but if I was just in the lab, with no patient care, I would be lost." Michael Keating, M.D., oversees Kanzius' treatment for leukemia at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Keating, no age available, also played an important role in getting Kanzius together with Curley and Smalley in 2005. He treated Kanzius and Smalley, who both were diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Smalley died from the disease in late 2005. Boris Yakobson, Ph.D., is a professor of chemistry, materials science and computational materials science at Rice University, Houston, and an expert on nanoparticles. Yakobson, 53, was a co-writer for Curley's article on Kanzius' invention that was published in October in Cancer, the medical journal of the American Cancer Society. He worked closely with Rick Smalley, Ph.D., a Nobel Prize-winning scientist at Rice who became very interested in Kanzius' project during the last months of his life. Katrina Briggs is a research assistant at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. She works full time on Kanzius' project. Her duties include growing, harvesting and preparing cancer cells, then subjecting them to Kanzius' radio-frequency generator. She records how they respond to treatment. Briggs, 43, works on the project in three different laboratories. She is part of an eight-member research team.

How did a project that began in Kanzius' winter home in Sanibel, Fla., end up at a world-class cancer institute?

It started when Kanzius, 64, stepped on an elevator and got off on the wrong floor.

Kanzius -- who has chronic lymphocytic leukemia, an incurable type of cancer -- was between physician appointments at M.D. Anderson in 2003 when he stepped into the hospital's main elevator and mistakenly got out on the pediatric floor.

"I saw all these kids, some of them with bald heads and holding IV stands," Kanzius said. "They were going through the same type of thing I was. That's when I knew there needed to be a different way."

Kanzius is not a medical expert. He doesn't even have a bachelor's degree.

But he was a radio engineer before he became a radio and television station president and co-owner. He knew radio waves could heat metal, and that cancer cells are more vulnerable to heat than healthy cells.

So Kanzius went home to Sanibel and began tinkering with pie pans, copper wiring and other materials.

"What if we could get the metal into the cancer cells, then hit them with radio waves?" Kanzius asked. "They would heat the metal, but not the rest of the body."

Heating hot dogs
Kanzius met Curley in 2005. By then he was using his homemade RF generator to quickly heat hot dogs until they burst.


He showed the device to Michael Keating, his leukemia physician at M.D. Anderson.

Keating suggested that Kanzius talk with Curley, who had been using radio waves to kill tumors in some patients. Because Curley had to physically insert needles into tumors to deliver the radio waves, it only worked with certain types of tumors at particular sites.

Curley and Kanzius talked and exchanged e-mails. The surgeon/researcher was intrigued with Kanzius' idea, but said it wasn't much of an improvement over the technique Curley already used.

"I asked John if he could build a device that would do it noninvasively, without using the needles," Curley said. "I thought that would get rid of him. A month later he called and said he had done it. He had called my bluff."

The premise was surprisingly simple: combine nanotubes -- microscopic pieces of gold or carbon that Kanzius had read about -- with antibodies or other agents that target cancer cells, and inject them into a cancer patient.


A patient would then be placed into Kanzius' device, which emits high-powered radio waves. The waves heat the nanotubes and destroy the cancer cells, but leave healthy cells unharmed.

Eureka

(Chris Simund / Erie Times-News)

The key was finding out whether radio waves would heat nanotubes, the tiny pieces of metal that could fit inside a cancer cell.

Curley discussed Kanzius' device with Rick Smalley, Ph.D., a Rice University scientist who had won the Nobel Prize for his work with nanoparticles. Like Kanzius, Smalley had been diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and was seriously ill.

"I had an argument with Rick in his hospital room," Curley said. "He looked at me and said it wasn't going to work, but I'll give you some (nanoparticles). It was like, 'Go away son, you're bothering me.'"


Curley took the nanoparticles to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in August 2005, where he met Kanzius.

They blasted a small amount of nanoparticles with Kanzius' device and watched in amazement as they quickly heated to about 660 degrees -- more than hot enough to destroy cancer cells.

"It was so hot that the nanoparticles came out of solution," Curley said. "I called Smalley with the news and his answer was, 'Holy ____!'"

It was the "eureka" moment that cancer researchers wait a lifetime to discover, Curley said. Plans were made to test the device at M.D. Anderson and UPMC.

Working in different labs

(Chris Simund / Erie Times-News)

Today, an eight-person research team at M.D. Anderson investigates Kanzius' theory in three different labs.

The basement lab is where researchers blast cancer cells with radio waves and view the results on a state-of-the-art microscope that was paid for by donations from Erie and Sanibel.

They must share space in two upstairs labs with other M.D. Anderson researchers. In those cramped quarters, they grow cells of 20 different types of cancer -- from liver cancer to leukemia -- harvest them and prepare them for Kanzius' device.

"These cells are like baby birds," Briggs said as she placed a deviled-egg tray of leukemia cells into an incubator. "You really have to take care of them. If you don't feed them the right way, they die."


The researchers often work alone, though they are under the supervision of Curley and fellow researcher Paul Cherikuri, Ph.D.

"We adjust our schedules because we often need the same equipment," Briggs said. "The others often are here in the evening."

The pace of progress has been astonishing, Curley said.

They have only been working on Kanzius' devices for a little more than two years, but already have been able to kill cancer cells in human tumors grown in live rabbits without harming the animals.

"There was a fair amount of whooping and hollering in the office that day," Curley said.

Targeting is the key
Now the efforts are focused on targeting, sending nanotubes inside cancer cells and not other, healthy cells.

Curley is reluctant to talk about the progress he and his team are having. He has submitted results to a major medical journal and is under an embargo until it is published.

"I can't jeopardize that," Curley said. "A colleague of mine at another institution talked about his project with a local television station and the journal sent back his paper without publishing it. It put their project way behind. We can't afford that."

But asked how the work is going overall, Curley said there have been "no major glitches" and that "I fully believe this will get to human trials."

Fatigue faded away
But human trials are years away and work continues at M.D. Anderson.

Kanzius was in Houston in late February to see Keating, his leukemia doctor. He wasn't feeling particularly good.

Chemotherapy and a recent viral infection had stolen 10 pounds from his already slender frame.


He barely slept the previous night, then took an early morning flight from Sanibel to M.D. Anderson.

"It's the last time I do that," Kanzius said.

Kanzius then underwent bone-marrow aspiration -- a painful procedure where doctors stick a long needle into his pelvis, and remove blood and small pieces of bone. It was done to see how Kanzius responded to chemotherapy.

Instead of grabbing some sleep, Kanzius and his wife, Marianne, rode an elevator to the hospital's basement to see the devices -- his devices.

As a television crew filmed footage for an upcoming story on 60 Minutes, Kanzius slipped on a pair of reading glasses and examined one of his devices with Curley.


The fatigue faded away, at least for the moment, as Kanzius fiddled with dials and peppered Curley and Briggs with questions about how the device had been operating.

He then watched video of cancer cells rupturing when treated with his device.

"I find it humbling, that this institute and Dr. Curley have endorsed this program, and find it amazing what they have accomplished in such a short time," Kanzius said. "Just watching the cell cultures here today, I just get goose bumps from watching it. I can't see it enough times. Every time it excites me."

DAVID BRUCE can be reached at 870-1736 or by e-mail.

A look at how nanotubes may work in cancer fight
HOUSTON -- A 3-foot mesh cylinder sat in a corner of Boris Yakobson's untidy office at Rice University.

"Aha!" said Yakobson, 53, a professor of chemistry and materials science at Rice. "That is a model of a nanotube. Of course, the real ones are much, much smaller."

Yakobson studies nanotubes at Rice and has written research papers about them. Nanotubes play a vital role in John Kanzius' experimental method of treating cancer.

These tiny pieces of carbon or gold, so small that tens of thousands of them can fit across a human hair, are placed inside cancer cells, then heated by Kanzius' radio-frequency generator.

The heat destroys cells with nanotubes, while cells without them are unaffected.

"This is just one use for nanotubes," Yakobson said. "Carbon nanotubes are among the hardest substances we know, so the possibilities are many."

Nanotubes, first discovered in Japan in 1991, are hex-agonally shaped arrangements of carbon or gold formed into tubes.

They used to be expensive to manufacture, about $1,000 per gram, but new technology has cut the cost to about $10 a gram, depending on the type.

"There is a lot of work going on right now with nanotubes. It's very exciting," Yakobson said.

"The medical applications are interesting. I am looking forward to seeing how (principal investigator for the Kanzius project) Steve Curley does with them."

Concept receives media attention
HOUSTON -- One of John Kanzius' grandchildren was visiting a doctor in February, when she spotted him on a waiting-room television.

CNN was broadcasting a story about Kanzius' radio-frequency generator.

The cable network originally showed the feature in 2007, but reran it on a health show it sends to physician offices across the country.

"She told people, 'That's my grandpa on TV,'" Kanzius said with a chuckle.

You can expect to see more of Kanzius on national television in upcoming weeks.

"60 Minutes" has interviewed Kanzius and researchers at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for a story it plans to broadcast about his invention. A date has not been announced, but Kanzius said he thinks it will run in late March.

Having Kanzius' invention broadcast on national television could boost fundraising efforts, but it also causes principal investigator Steven Curley, M.D., to worry about potential problems.

"It scares the heck out of me," Curley said with a thin smile.

"I told ("60 Minutes" reporter) Leslie Stahl that we're not ready to treat patients, but viewers might not hear that. I also don't know what John said about things."

It's not the first time a national television news show or large-circulation newspaper has reported on the Kanzius project.

Stories have run on the CBS "Early Show", "Good Morning America" and in the Los Angeles Times.

DAVID BRUCE can be reached at 870-1736 or by e-mail.

New Fundraising Organization
A new nonprofit organization is raising money for John Kanzius' radiofrequency generator.

Community united for a Cancer Cure has become the John Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation. The name has changed because the foundation is now a stand-alone nonprofit organization.

The foundation raises money and awareness for Kanzius' project. The money goes for research at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

The foundation and its predecessor, the CCC, have raised $500,000. Some of the money has been used to buy a state-of-the-art microscope at M.D. Anderson.

To donate, visit
www.johnkanziuscancerresearchfoundation.org or visit any First National Bank location.

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080309/NEWS02/803090417/-1/NEWS

Can this man cure cancer? And viral infection? And arterial plaques?

By MATT CLARK (Contact)

Video

10:15 p.m., Saturday, June 21, 2008

How Kanzius' treatment works

John Kanzius couldn’t tell his wife what he was doing.

He’d been diagnosed with a rare form of B-cell leukemia in 2002, and he’d endured months of chemotherapy.

But still the cancer persisted. As he tells it: “I go into a partial remission or whatever. In another six or eight months, it’s back again. So, I go back into some more chemotherapy.”

Then one late night in 2003, unable to sleep and energized with an idea, the chemo-battered Kanzius began to tear apart the couple’s vacation home on Sanibel Island.

“Of course, I couldn’t say at that point that I’m working on a cancer treatment.” The 64-year-old Kanzius (it’s pronounced like the state) remembers thinking about the parts he’d need. And how he’d explain all this to his wife, Marianne.

“She would have found the nearest psychiatrist and said, ‘After chemotherapy tomorrow, I’ve got another appointment for you,’” he says. “So she would say, ‘What are you doing?’ And I would just tell her that I was working on some stuff for amateur radio.”

Kanzius’ goal was to focus a large number of low-frequency radio waves into a small area. The idea was to heat metal, and in turn kill cancer cells. The same thing that happens when metal is placed in a microwave oven, which uses frequencies a million times more powerful to vibrate molecules and generate heat. The metal heats up. Way up.

Get the metal into cancer cells, Kanzius reasoned, and the cells would be destroyed without harming healthy cells in the body.

He has no medical background, not even a college degree. Still, Kanzius was determined to develop a new cancer treatment, and he used his background in electronics — specifically radio frequency transmitters — to move forward.

At 22, Kanzius worked at RCA as a technical assistant. He remembers the time when the company couldn’t solve a problem with its color television transmitters, which had put RCA at odds with Federal Communications Commission specifications and some of its customers.

“I was able to do in one day what they couldn’t do in two years with all of their Ph.D.’s, and it got me well-recognized,” Kanzius says proudly. “I was able to fix that with a 50-cent part, in like an hour.”

Later, Kanzius co-owned and operated a broadcasting company in Erie, Pa., where he still lives part of the year. And he still puttered at home with his radios.

Back in Erie, Kanzius had all the requisite parts. But on the island, he had to get creative. The key ingredient turned out to be heavy-duty pie plates he found rummaging in the kitchen. His wife of 44 years would later search out the radio parts he needed.

“John is often up in the middle of the night,” she says of the early morning her husband was pulling out pie plates. “That night, he was like a man possessed. He was making an awful lot of noise and racket.

“I asked him to go back to sleep and he said, ‘I have to think about this, I can’t sleep.’ He had chemotherapy in the morning, so I was concerned.”

That second round of chemo had made Kanzius so weak he was even unable to board a plane for the funeral of his mother, who died at 83 of lung cancer in late 2003.

But he pressed on.

Soon, Kanzius’ makeshift laboratory in the garage of his Sanibel Island home took shape. Soon, he’d be injecting pieces of metal into hot dogs and liver. The machine’s waves successful heated the metal embeded in the meat. The idea of a new cancer-fighting treatment was coming together.

Soon after Kanzius acquired patents for his work, the machine was featured in a newspaper article in the Erie Times-News. That got the attention of Dr. David Geller, then co-director of the Liver Cancer Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Geller says he was skeptical at first.

Then Dr. Steven Curley got on board. Curley is a professor of surgical oncology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, rated No. 1 in cancer treatment by U.S. News and World Report for four of the past six years.

Curley already had been working with radio frequency treatment methods for cancer, and was part of the effort that led to U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for radio frequency ablation, a treatment that works by using a needle-like probe into — or next to — a cancerous tumor. Radio energy from the needle kills the cancer cells — but sometimes can harm surrounding tissue.

Radio frequency ablation has not been effective on more difficult-to-reach tumors, nor does it have an effect on a cancer that has metastasized, or spread to other parts of the body. And Curley’s method, one of four similar ways of using superheated probes on cancer cells, still required a device to be inserted, and then heated.

The key ingredient in the Kanzius innovation are nanoparticles — pieces of metal so small that 75,000 to 100,000 of them can fit across the tip of a human hair. They are introduced into the body where the cancer lives, and then the machine ignites them to cell-killing temperatures.

For the very first experiments, Kanzius and Curley went to Nobel laureate Rick Smalley for the nanoparticles. Smalley was skeptical that the process would work, but became a believer after the nanoparticles successfully burned when activated by the machine. And on his deathbed in October of 2005, Smalley reportedly asked Curley to promise the research would continue.

And it has.

Every experiment by researchers has led them closer to clinical trials in humans, which the researchers believe could occur in three to five years. Early experiments have demonstrated that cancer cells paired with nanoparticles can be destroyed, while leaving nearby healthy cells intact.

In an important experiment performed by Curley, pancreatic cancer cells and liver cancer cells were combined with nanoparticles in petri dishes, and then exposed to the radio frequency waves created by Kanzius’ machine. The successful results were presented in January of 2007 at a conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Then the researchers tested the theory on animals: Both Curley and Geller have reported success in destroying cancerous tumors in lab animals — using Kanzius’ machine and nanoparticles.

Curley’s success with tumors in rabbits was published in October of last year in Cancer, a medical oncology journal published by the American Cancer Society. Geller’s success treating cancerous cells in rats is expected to be published in August.

All are hopeful signs. But these breakthroughs have only worked on tumors, not cancer that has spread throughout the body.

The next step is to get the nanoparticles to hitch a ride on the body’s disease-fighting antibody cells right to the cancer, no matter where it is hiding. Patients would take a pill, or be injected with a nanoparticle-antibody cocktail. The microscopic metallic particles could then be zapped by Kanzius’ harmless radio field. The waves would kill the cancer cells in seconds — or at least that’s the hope.

“In this whole process, that’s considered the holy grail,” Kanzius says. “To go after the specific metastasized cells.”

Geller explains it this way: “Lung, breast, colon and prostate — none of those patients die of their primary (cancer), they die from metastasis.”

But before anyone gets too excited, Kanzius offers this caveat: If the research leads to treatment in humans, it won’t necessarily mean cancer is cured. Kanzius says that many types of cancer, after being destroyed, can regenerate. Which may mean that some patients will have to get retreated at regular intervals.

Kanzius remembers the call he received from Curley when his experiments first showed that cancerous tumors could be destroyed in laboratory animals. That was around Christmas of 2006, he says.

“That was a big day for him and he called me right after he got the results,” Kanzius says. “I was very excited, you know. I told my wife, ‘This is unbelievable. It works.’”

Both Kanzius’ machine and the researchers’ targeting mixtures will enter the FDA approval process at the same time — probably within months. And it probably won’t be difficult to find willing candidates for clinical trials, Kanzius included. But will they occur before cancer takes his life?

Medical communities are starting to warm to the possibilities. Lee Memorial Health System, for example, has signed up to host clinical trials. Dr. Sharon MacDonald, chief officer of the Lee Memorial Health System Foundation and vice president of oncology, calls the targeting treatment “very promising.”

She says that unlike the current limited stock of cancer treatments, Kanzius’ machine wouldn’t require having toxic chemicals, radiation or medical instruments enter the body. She says the new treatment will use non-toxic gold nanoparticles and proven, lab-created antibodies to target the cancer cells.

MacDonald says taking part in early clinical trials will be a good fit for Lee Memorial’s new cancer center being constructed near the intersection of Interstate 75 and Colonial Boulevard in Fort Myers.

“It piqued our interest to be able to be local and be only one of a handful of sites in the nation to be able to participate in a human trial when it comes about,” MacDonald says.

Kanzius, who headed back north to Erie in early May, says he hopes to build a larger version of his machine by August. He says it will allow a person to receive treatment throughout his or her body.

He says his machine is also showing promise in the treatment of like HIV, and could play a role in overcoming future water shortages. For example, if it can remove salt from sea water, the world might have an almost limitless supply of drinking water. Kanzius initially experimented with test tubes full of seawater collected from the canal behind his Florida home, and now research on the theory is progressing at Penn State University.

The possibilities about what the machine might accomplish run rampant. Can it defeat viruses and infections? Heart disease? No research has begun on those hopeful thoughts, but Kanzius has submitted patents for the treatment of other diseases. “One of those viruses could be HIV,” Kanzius says. “The viruses are actually easier to work with than cancer cells,”

Kanzius also says it may be possible to target plaques in arteries.

“It’s exciting knowing that there are other uses out there,” Kanzius says.

But making money isn’t the motivation. Kanzius says he filed numerous patents to protect the machine and the research surrounding it. There will be plenty of money to be made in creating the nanoparticle-antibody cocktails, he says.

But just getting to the finish line is going to be difficult. “The major setback is that the research is very expensive and most of the research that I’ve been doing is because of philanthropic funding,” says researcher Geller.

No big company has stepped in to fund research into Kanzius’ machine, so the money has to come from somewhere else. He’s established the John Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation. Its Web site — www.kanziuscancerresearch.com — has drawn a rash of donations as media reports on the device have spread.

Kanzius is not letting all of this attention go to his head. Being interviewed on “60 Minutes” by Lesley Stahl. Going on the “The Early Show.” Reporters asking for interviews, from around the world.

Most of the media requests go unanswered. His time, he says, is limited.

“I’d be better off building better equipment, concentrating on ways to improve it, than figuring out what flight I’m going to take to be on Oprah Winfrey,” he says.

Even his Sanibel neighbors are interested, and supportive.

During a late April interview for this story, Sanibel resident Candy Scothorn can’t help but interrupt. “Congratulations,” she tells Kanzius. “We’re just very thrilled that you’re here and we’re proud. We greatly appreciate it.”

Scothorn reaches out her hand to be shaken.

“I do it this way,” he tells her, bumping knuckles instead of grasping her hand. It’s one way Kanzius lowers his exposure to germs that might attack his weakened immune system.

“It’s fabulous that he’s a human being. A soul,” adds the 51-year-old Scothorn.

Wife Marianne says it’s her husband’s cancer that keeps him from getting too excited.

“It has humbled both of us, and it’s kept us very grounded. His passion has been working on this project. That has taken most of his energy. How he does it, I don’t know, because I get tired.”

And yet Kanzius keeps going. Waiting for results. Battling cancer. Hanging on.

“‘Til I see it work, you know, (until) I see the first human treated and it works,” he says, “then it will be a day to celebrate and break open the champagne. There’s no need to build yourself up ‘til it gets to where you really want it to.

“There is probably going to be a stem cell transplant eventually,” he says about his own prospects against an unrelenting disease. ”But I’d rather do this than any other. At least I know this will work.”

Source

I note that Kanzius envisions using his radio wave machine to zap viruses, bacteria, and arterial plaque with an appropriately accompanying metal nanoparticle such as gold attached to them. It seems to me that regarding viruses, should NanoViricides include a metal nanoparticle in their virus seeking and attaching micelle-ligand Cide they would have a double barreled attack - 1) From the Cide itself, and 2) From the radiowave heating-destruction involving the metal nanoparticle.

And it must be noted that Kanzius' biggest remaining problem is getting the metal nanoparticle to go to - be attracted to - the virus and attaching itself to the virus - and we HAVE THAT BIT SOLVED ALREADY for our Cide!
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Machine May Offer Novel Approach In Cancer Fight

• Apr 14, 2008 7:11 am US/Eastern
  

(CBS) What if we told you that a guy with no background in science or medicine-not even a college degree-has come up with what may be one of the most promising breakthroughs in cancer research in years?

Well it's true, and if you think it sounds improbable, consider this: he did it with his wife's pie pans and hot dogs.

His name is John Kanzius, and he's a former businessman and radio technician who built a radio wave machine that has cancer researchers so enthusiastic about its potential they're pouring money and effort into testing it out.

Here's the important part: if clinical trials pan out-and there's still a long way to go-the Kanzius machine will zap cancer cells all through your body without the need for drugs or surgery and without side effects. None at all. At least that's the idea.

The last thing John Kanzius thought he'd ever do was try to cure cancer. A former radio and television executive from Pennsylvania, he came to Florida to enjoy his retirement.

"I have no business being in the cancer business. It's not something that a layman like me should be in, it should be left to doctors and research people," he told correspondent Lesley Stahl.

"But sometimes it takes an outsider," Stahl remarked.

"Sometimes it just - maybe you get lucky," Kanzius replied.

It was the worst kind of luck that gave Kanzius the idea to use radio waves to kill cancer cells: six years ago, he was diagnosed with terminal leukemia and since then has undergone 36 rounds of toxic chemotherapy. But it wasn't his own condition that motivated him, it was looking into the hollow eyes of sick children on the cancer ward at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

"I saw the smiles of youth and saw their spirits were broken. And you could see that they were sort of asking, 'Why can't they do something for me?'" Kanzius told Stahl.

"So they started to haunt you. The children," Stahl asked.
"Their faces. I still remember them holding on their Teddy bears and so forth," he replied. "And shortly after that I started my own chemotherapy, my third round of chemotherapy."

Kanzius told Stahl the chemotherapy made him very sick and that he couldn't sleep at night. "And I said, 'There's gotta be a better way to treat cancer.'"

It was during one of those sleepless nights that the light bulb went off. When he was young, Kanzius was one of those kids who built radios from scratch, so he knew the hidden power of radio waves. Sick from chemo, he got out of bed, went to the kitchen, and started to build a radio wave machine.

"Started looking in the cupboard and I saw pie pans and I said, 'These are perfect. I can modify these,'" he recalled.

His wife Marianne woke up that night to a lot of banging and clamoring. "I was concerned truthfully that he had lost it," she told Stahl.

"She felt sorry for me," Kanzius added.

"I did," Marianne Kanzius acknowledged. "And I had mentioned to him, 'Honey, the doctors can't-you know, find an answer to cancer. How can you think that you can?'"

That's what 60 Minutes wanted to know, so Stahl went to his garage laboratory to find out.

Here's how it works: one box sends radio waves over to the other, creating enough energy to activate gas in a fluorescent light. Kanzius put his hand in the field to demonstrate that radio waves are harmless to humans.

"So right from the beginning you're trying to show that radio waves could activate gas and not harm the human-anything else," Stahl remarked. "'Cause you're looking for some kind of a treatment with no side effects, that's what's in your head."

"No side effects," Kanzius replied.

But how could he focus the radio waves to destroy cancer cells?

"That was the next $64,000 question," Kanzius said.

The answer would cost much more than that. Kanzius spent about $200,000 just to have a more advanced version of his machine built. He knew that metal heats up when it's exposed to high-powered radio waves. So what if a tumor was injected with some kind of metal, and zapped with a focused beam of radio waves? Would the metal heat up and kill the cancer cells, but leave the area around them unharmed? He did his first test with hot dogs.

"I'm going to inject it with some copper sulfate," Kanzius explained, demonstrating the machine. "And I'm going to take the probe right at the injection site."

Kanzius placed the hot dog in his radio wave machine, and Stahl watched to see if the temperature would rise in that one area where the metal solution was and nowhere else.

"And when I saw it start to go up I said, 'Eureka, I've done it,'" Kanzius remembered. "And I said, 'God, I gotta shut this off and see whether it's still cold down below.' So I shut it off, took my probe, went down here where it wasn't injected. And the temperature dropped back down. And I said, 'God, maybe I got something here.'"

Kanzius thought he had found a way attack cancer cells without the collateral damage caused by chemotherapy and radiation. Today, his invention is in the laboratories of two major research centers - the University of Pittsburgh and M.D. Anderson, where Dr. Steven Curley, a liver cancer surgeon, is testing it.

"This technology may allow us to treat just about any kind of cancer you can imagine," Dr. Curley told Stahl. "I've gotta tell you, in 20 years of research this is the most exciting thing that I've encountered."

That's because Kanzius impressed Curley with another remarkable idea: to combine the radio waves from his device with something cutting edge - space age nanoparticles made of metal or carbon. They are so small that thousands of them can fit in a single cancer cell. Because they're metallic, Kanzius was hoping his radio waves would them heat up and kill the cancer.

"If these nanoparticles work then we truly have something huge here," Kanzius told Stahl.

Enter Rick Smalley, another cancer patient at M.D. Anderson and the man who won the Nobel Prize for discovering nanoparticles made from carbon. As luck would have it, Dr. Curley was called in one day to examine Smalley. Before leaving, he asked him for some of his nanoparticles.

"I proceeded to tell him what I wanted to do and that I thought they would heat. He looked at me with sort of a studied long look and didn't say anything. And then he looked at me and said, 'It won't work,'" Curley remembered. "And just laughed and said, 'Well, look, I'll give you some. But don't be too disappointed.'"

So Dr. Curley brought a vial of those precious nanoparticles to John Kanzius.

And on an August day in 2005, Curley and Kanzius put them to the test. Would the metallic nanoparticles heat up enough to kill cancer?

"So we take the nanoparticles, we put 'em in the radio field. And in about 15 seconds, they're boiling and heating and Steve Curley couldn't contain himself. He called Rick Smalley and he said, 'Rick, you're not going to believe this. He just blew the smithereens out of your nanoparticles,'" Kanzius recalled.

Smalley's response? "The only thing that I got out of him after this pause was, "Holy s…,'" Curley recalled.

Not long after that day, Smalley died of lymphoma. Once a skeptic, he had become one of Kanzius' biggest supporters.

"He didn't expect it, but he embraced it to his death bed when he told Dr. Curley this will change medicine forever. Don't stop, no matter what you do," Kanzius told Stahl.

And they haven't stopped. They've already shown that the Kanzius machine can heat nanoparticles and cook cancer to death in animals. Dr. Curley with rabbits, and in Pittsburgh, Dr. David Geller demonstrated to 60 Minutes how he used nanoparticles, made from gold, to kill liver cancer cells grown in rats.

"Now what we're going to do is inject the nanoparticles," Dr. Geller explained. "Directly into the tumor."

In the study the rats, anesthetized to keep them still, were exposed to the Kanzius radio waves. Dr. Geller later examined their tumors under a microscope.

"What you can see is that cells are starting to fall apart. You see white spaces in between them. The body of the cell is shrinking, the cells are starting to die," Geller pointed out.

"And can you tell from this whether the area surrounding the tumor had any destruction?" Stahl asked.

"Grossly inspecting the animal, we did not see not see any damage to the surrounding tissue," Geller said.

So far, the Kanzius method has only been applied to solid, localized tumors in animals. The ultimate goal is to treat cancer that has metastasized or spread to other parts of the body. Those undetectable rogue cells are what most often kill people with cancer and the trick is finding them.

"If we can't target the microscopic cells this is not going to be a cure," Curley said.

That's why Curley is trying to use special molecules that are programmed to target cancer cells and attach nanoparticles to them.

He showed Stahl an animation of how he hopes the targeting will work in people one day, with a simple injection of gold nanoparticles into the bloodstream.

"What we're seeing here is an example of a gold nanoparticle in this case with an antibody on it, so the antibody would be the targeting molecule," Curley explained. "You can see it is tiny compared to a normal red blood cell just imagine all of these billions of these gold nanoparticles circulating through the body and then once they get into the blood vessels going to the tumor, these nanoparticles would go through and bind on the surface of the cell."

"The cancer cell. It wouldn't bind on a normal cell," Stahl observed.

"That's right, they would bind only to the cancer cell. Now here's the nanoparticles in the cell, here comes John's radio frequency treatment. The cells get hot and they're destroyed," Curley said.

"Gosh, it does look like one of those science fiction movies," Stahl remarked.

"Right now it is a little science fiction," Curley agreed. "We're not quite to the real time yet, but it's got a lot of promise."

Even if all goes well in the lab, it'll be at least another four years before human trials can start. But John Kanzius says he's afraid he doesn't have that much time. So to help speed up the research, he's been raising millions of dollars and getting press coverage about his invention.

"Now I can't count the number of times the journalistic community, has done stories on a cancer cure," Stahl said. "I did one in 1973. …How many times have we seen these things work in the Petri dish, work with animals. And then you get them into humans and they don't work."

"Dozens," Curley replied.

But if this one does work, it most likely won't be developed in time to help the man who invented it. John Kanzius may have the option of a bone marrow transplant that could buy him more time, but after six years of chemo it would be another grueling ordeal.

"Did you ever say, 'I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm not going to put myself through it,'?" Stahl asked.

"Yes. I said that-only about a year and a half ago," Kanzius replied. "I changed my mind because I think with all the research that's going on with the institutions, that maybe, I'd like to be around for the first patient to get treated and just have a smile."

"Oh my God," Stahl said.

"And then I don't care anymore," Kanzius replied.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

John Kanzius hopes his machine using radio waves will one day represent a significant advance in treating cancer.

CBS News

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Kanzius lands seed money

BY DAVID BRUCE
david.bruce@timesnews.com [more details]
Published: August 19. 2008 1:10AM

John Kanzius, left, waits near a prototype of the radio-frequency device he invented, at Industrial Sales and Manufacturing Inc., in Millcreek Township on July 23. Steven Curley, M.D., principal investigator for Kanzius' device at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, was visiting to see if Erie might host human trials on the device as early as 2010. (Greg Wohlford / Erie Times-News) Zoom | Buy this photo

John Kanzius used to have trouble getting government officials interested in his experimental cancer-treatment device.

Now they seem to be eager to help him.

U.S. Rep. Phil English, of Erie, R-3rd Dist., visited Kanzius' lab Monday to promise $500,000 in federal funding for the external radio-frequency generator. The House Committee on Appropriations has approved the funds, and the House could act on it as early as September, English said.

The bill must still be approved by the full House and Senate and signed by President Bush, though English said "it's very close" to being a done deal.

"This is the kind of project the federal government should support," English said.


English is the latest high-ranking public official to meet with Kanzius. The Millcreek Township inventor had lunch with Gov. Ed Rendell last week, and Kanzius demonstrated his cancer-killing device to Sen. Bob Casey in early July.

Government funding is crucial, Kanzius said, because it can speed research at both M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

"Just like when you spread fertilizer on the ground to grow grass more quickly, funding research helps get you results more quickly," Kanzius said.

It will cost about $10 million to fund all of the work needed to take Kanzius' device to human trials, said Steven Curley, M.D., principal investigator for Kanzius' device at M.D. Anderson. The device works by emitting radio waves that heat and destroy cancer cells targeted with tiny pieces of metal, called nanoparticles.

The $500,000 appropriation wouldn't be the first federal appropriation for Kanzius' device -- U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter has helped provide $384,000 in funding for the project -- but it would be the largest.


The money would cover the cost of four researchers at M.D. Anderson or UPMC for an entire year, Kanzius said.

"You're buying time," he said. "You're buying lives."

Interest has grown in Kanzius' device since a "60 Minutes" report aired April 13. It has gained worldwide attention as a possible treatment for a variety of cancers.

"I'm hearing a lot more feedback from the public," English said. "It's something people are aware of and truly support."

Kanzius said continued success at the two research centers has also spurred interest.


"And I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg," Kanzius said. "It's the beginning of a huge groundswell of research dollars."

It's not known how the $500,000 would be divided between UPMC and M.D. Anderson. English said it would be up to the John Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation.

DAVID BRUCE can be reached at 870-1736 or by e-mail.

You can donate to the Kanzius Project by visiting www.johnkanziuscancerresearchfoundation.org or by mailing a check or money order to the John Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation, 915 State St., Erie, PA 16501.

Source

Kanzius' next step

Inventor, researchers find device can target cancer cells

BY DAVID BRUCE
david.bruce@timesnews.com [more details]

Published: April 15. 2008 6:00AM

John Kanzius as he is being interviewed in an overhead walkway to the M D Anderson Cancer Center Feb. 28. (Rob Engelhardt / Erie Times-News)

John Kanzius couldn't believe what he was hearing in his earpiece.

Kanzius, a Millcreek Township inventor, was being interviewed live Monday on CBS' "Early Show" about his radio-frequency generator. Researchers at two prestigious cancer centers are testing the device to see if it can treat cancer in humans.

One of those researchers, Steven Curley, M.D., of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, was telling "Early Show" co-host Harry Smith that his team has successfully targeted cancer cells with tiny pieces of metal -- an important step in the process.

"I just about fell out of my chair," Kanzius said after being interviewed by the "Early Show" from his winter home in Sanibel, Fla. "I knew the news, but I had no idea that Steve was going to talk about it on national television."

Kanzius was featured Sunday night on CBS' "60 Minutes," which broadcast a segment on Kanzius' device.

Since the broadcast, Kanzius said he has been bombarded with e-mails and telephone calls.

"It started almost immediately after '60 Minutes' ended," Kanzius said. "I've received more than 100 e-mails."

Both Kanzius and Curley said the "60 Minutes" piece told their story accurately. The 12-minute segment focused on Kanzius, who invented the device in 2003 after he was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia.

Media

More stories, photos and videos on the CBS Web site at htt://www.goerie.com/extra/kanziusCBS

Reporter Lesley Stahl also interviewed Curley and David Geller, M.D., the lead researcher on the Kanzius project at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

They told Stahl that Kanzius' device is designed to beam high-frequency radio waves into the body, after cancer cells are targeted with microscopic pieces of metal, called nanoparticles.


Radio waves are harmless to the body, but heat metal. Cancer cells containing the nanoparticles would be destroyed, but healthy cells would be left unharmed.

Earlier tests had shown the device completely kills cancerous tumors in living animals.

Since those tests, Curley and his team have been trying to target cancer cells with nanoparticles, without placing them in healthy cells. His comment on the "Early Show" indicates they have been successful.

"We are preparing a manuscript on targeting in four different lines of human cancer cells, and animal work is starting next month," Curley said in an e-mail Monday.

The CBS broadcasts have had a dramatic effect on the John Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation and its new Web site. The foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to raising money for research on Kanzius' device.


The new site went up just days before the broadcasts and is already being visited by computer users across the country.

"We have received between 20,000 and 30,000 visits since 7 p.m. Sunday," said Brian Barnes, owner of High Recall Advertising, the Missouri-based agency that built and operates the site for the foundation. "We're getting one to two donations a minute, for a total of about $10,000 so far."

The next step for Kanzius is to return to Erie in May and begin working at Industrial Sales and Manufacturing Inc., in Millcreek, to build a larger generator to use in human trials.

"Those are my orders from Steve," Kanzius said with a laugh.


@ Foundation's site: www.johnkanziuscancerresearchfoundation.org.

DAVID BRUCE can be reached at 870-1736 or by e-mail.

Link

Cancer treatment innovator dies

Kanzius developed radio-based device to treat disease

By MCKENZIE CASSIDY, mcassidy@breezenewspapers.com

POSTED: February 21, 2009
Part-time Sanibel resident John Kanzius, a retired radio engineer and innovator of a groundbreaking radio-based device designed to cure cancer, died Wednesday from complications related to his own cancer treatment.

Email: "Cancer treatment innovator dies"
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Kanzius, 64, was a patient at Health Park Medical Center receiving care for a bout of pneumonia he contracted after two recent rounds of chemotherapy to combat b-cell Leukemia. He is survived by his wife, Marianne; two daughters, Sherry Kanzius and Toni Palmer; and two grandchildren.

Kanzius made national headlines after designing the device capable of transmitting radio waves to essentially burn out cancerous cells. Last year he was interviewed on 60 Minutes and his unique innovation has been featured on countless news programs.

Scientists were initially shocked when Kanzius, without any formal medical degree or training, showcased the device he designed in his free time. His story began in 2003 after several painful rounds of chemotherapy when - according to an interview with the Los Angeles Times - Kanzius awoke at 2 a.m. with the idea to create a device to burn the cancer out of his body.

Since the 1960s Kanzius had worked as a broadcast engineer and later a manager in a number of radio stations across the United States.

It took several months for him to use spare wires, boxes, antennas and even his wife's pie pans to assemble the device, which he later presented to Dr. Steven Curley from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Richard Smalley, a Nobel Prize winning specialist in nanoscience, also assisted with perfecting the nanotubes used in the treatment before his death from cancer in 2005.

Because his residence was on Sanibel after retiring from Eerie, Pa., Kanzius approached officials from Lee Memorial Health System to include them in human trials.

Sharon MacDonald, vice president of Oncology at Lee Memorial Health System, kept regular correspondence with Kanzius up until the week he passed away. She first met Kanzius in 2007 when he approached her and LMHS President Jim Nathan about including Lee County hospitals in the research behind the cure for cancer.

"I talked to him last week and we talked about the trial and his treatment and family," said MacDonald. "Beside having a great intellect he was also well loved by his family and the community."

The local health system has been handpicked to host human trials for the device following approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Currently, researchers are in the final stages of animal testing.

"We were good colleagues and I had great respect for him and his family," said MacDonald.

Researchers agree that if perfected the device could serve as an alternative to invasive cancer treatment.

In the work behind the Kanzius Radio Frequency Generator, Curley's research team was capable of killing cancer cells in rabbits within 120 seconds. During the experiment carbon nanotubes, or hollow cylinders made of pure carbon, were placed in a rabbit's cancerous liver and heated with radio waves.

In a statement published on the John Kanzius Research Foundation, Curley said he would continue whatever is necessary to perfect the technology and find a cure.

"John's legacy must and will live on. I will continue this important research work with renewed vigor and focus because I despise this disease that has stolen another brilliant individual from us," said Curley.

During a presentation of the device last year Curley said his team was concerned about some tissue around the nanotube sustaining heat damage during the process. Researchers have also been looking into using gold nanoparticles and a study published by the Journal of Nanobiotechnology in 2008 showed promising results.

"Our next step is to look at ways to more precisely target the nanotubes so they attach to, and are taken up by, cancer cells while avoiding normal tissue," said Curley at the end of 2007.

The John Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation continues to accept donations for research but officials are disappointed that he will never be able to see the device reach fruition.

"We will not stop until John's vision becomes reality," said Maryann Yochim, president of the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation. "Our only regret at this point is that John will not be here to see the first cancer patient cured with his technology. But, we believe strongly that this will happen. It's only a matter of time."

The Dusckas-Martin Funeral Home in Millcreek, Penn. will handle Kanzius' funeral arrangements this weekend. The foundation Web site is www.kanziuscancerresearch.com.

Source

Salt water fuel gets major university review

John Kanzius

Michael O'Mara Created: 9/12/2007 7:08:18 PM Updated:9/13/2007 5:43:11 PM Play Video

"This is the biggest discovery in 100 years in water research" claims expert.

Last May, Channel 3 News took you inside the no-frills machine shop in outskirts of Erie, Pennsylvania where inventor, John Kanzius along with Jim and Charlie Rutkowski were burning water.

We watched as they poured Morton's salt into a container, mixed it with water and then exposed the fluid to the Kanzius radio frequency device.
An intense flame erupted over the test tube.

"In this case we weren't looking for energy," said John Kanzius. "We were looking for something that might do desalinization. And the more we tried desalinization, the more heat we produced until we got fire."

Kanzius had originally designed his RF machine to kill cancer cells by heating up high tech nanoparticles.

Doctor Steven Curley, M.D. is using the Kanzius RF device for research at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.

But back in the lab in Erie, a whole new application suddenly developed. Could salt water become the ultimate green fuel source? The possibility was deeply intriguing for Kanzius and his team.

"To see it burn actually gives me chills", said Kanzius, "because could this be an alternative fuel for a world that's using way to much fossil fuels."

For months, Channel 3 reporter, Mike O'Mara has been getting emails from around the world claiming there must be some kind of trick involved. Many thought the flame erupting over the test tube was a hoax.

Professor Emeritus, Rustum Roy, at the Penn State University Materials Lab is a leading expert on the science of water. He was impressed by the discovery but wanted to see it for himself.

On September 6th, lab assistants wheeled the Kanzius RF invention down the hallways at PSU into a large laboratory on the first floor.

The Material Science faculty exposed more than 50 different water combinations to the radio frequency to see the reaction.

"This is the biggest discovery in 100 years in water research" exclaimed Professor Roy.

Scientists at Penn State University believe the frequency used in the Kanzius machine is releasing atomic hydrogen molecules from the salt water by weakening the bonds holding the sodium chloride, oxygen and hydrogen together. That's why the flame is so incredibly hot.

PSU research associate,Tania Slawecki said,"I think this is an excellent breakthrough. The steam engine wasn't invented because thermodynamics existed. The steam engine was invented and then thermodynamics came along. We've got lots more to discover about this invention, too."

However, many engineering experts aren't as impressed. Energy experts like University of Akron Professor Emeritus, Rudy Scavuzzo, Ph.D, say the burning of salt water is nothing more than a new twist on a high school science experiment.

Scavuzzo told Channel 3's Mike O'Mara that the Kanzius invention requires too much energy to be worth celebrating.

"There is no breakthrough", said Professor Scavuzzo, "because there are more efficient ways of breaking water down to hydrogen and oxygen."

Scavuzzo's son, Steven, a technical consultant for Babcock & Wilcox, said that salt water is not a fuel.

"You can make steam or you can break it down," said Scavuzzo. "One way or another you have to add energy and one way or another, what's going to come out is less than what you put in."

However, at PSU, Professor Roy wants the critics to reserve judgment until more research is done with the device.

"Certainly it needs investigation and certainly we ought to look at the question of how efficient it is", said Roy. "Because that will determine how much John Kanzius shakes up the world. He has shaken up the scientific world already. But this will determine how much he shakes it up."

Pointing at the RF machine, Roy added, "That's a tremendous advance in a new empirical discovery."

Meanwhile, John Kanzius continues his work. He wants to remind everyone that the salt water technology is still in its infancy.

"I'm not a Thomas Edison or a Jonas Salk", said Kanzius. "I don't propose to be one. I just want to be remembered for being a guy who tried."

Source

Cure for cancer? Sanibel man may be on to something

Cancer patient came up with treatment while sick

By JENNIFER BOOTH REED • jreed@news-press.com • March 3, 2008

In a laboratory at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, researchers injected nanoparticles into tumors they had grown in rabbits. They placed the animals on a special machine that would direct radio waves at the tumor site. They flipped a switch.

The waves heated the nanoparticles and bang! Within seconds, the nanoparticles released enough heat to kill the cancer cells. No drugs, no radiation, no surgery, no apparent side effects and the healthy tissue surrounding the tumor remained unscathed.

In a laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh, another research team tried a similar experiment, this time on rats. It, too, was a success.

Imagine the implications for humans.

It looks like John Kanzius was right.

The part-time Sanibel resident dreamed up the radio wave therapy four-plus years ago, sick from chemotherapy himself and saddened by a glimpse of children receiving the drugs at the hospital where he underwent treatment.

Now, the research is emerging to back his theory.

Kanzius was diagnosed with leukemia in 2002. As he went through those initial rounds of chemotherapy, he told himself there had to be a better way.

Kanzius, 64, is a former radio and television station owner from Pennsylvania with no medical background but, clearly, an uncanny mind for figuring things out.Sick and sleepless, Kanzius built his prototype at his Sanibel home in eight weeks during the fall of 2003. It’s still in his garage.

His first experiments had been on hot dogs injected with copper sulfate. Could he, he wondered, “transmit” the radio frequency directly to the afflicted areas?

Radio waves have been used before in a cancer treatment known as ablation. Doctors insert needles into a tumor and deliver radio waves to the site. The energy heats and destroys the malignant tissue. But the technique can damage healthy tissue, not to mention force the patient to endure the invasive insertions.

Kanzius’ model solves both problems.

Dr. Steven Curley of M.D. Anderson published his team’s results in the December 2007 issue of the journal Cancer. Dr. David Geller at the University of Pittsburgh presented his team’s research abstract two weeks ago at the annual Academic Surgical Congress in Huntington Beach, Calif.

“It is far enough along that we’re talking about human trials,” Kanzius said on a recent afternoon.

Kanzius and Curley will give a public talk Tuesday at South Fort Myers High School where they’ll recount the tale of this businessman-turned-patient-turned-inventor-turned-researcher, tell the community about ongoing research and outline what’s next in turning Kanzius’ idea into medical reality.

“It’s a pretty remarkable story,” said Curley from his lab in Texas. “In 20 years, I’ve never run into somebody who had something that I thought was viable.”

“In the last year we’ve made excellent progress,” Geller said.

The doctors are heartened.

So is Kanzius.

“If you got the treatment, you wouldn’t even know it,” he said.

Promising as it is, the research is just beginning.

“Does it just stun the cancer or does it disappear?” asked Geller, posing one of many questions his team must answer.

Other questions: Will the machine need to be adapted for larger animals and then for humans? Will there be different strategies to treat different kinds of cancer? And, how can doctors get the nanoparticles to seek out and latch onto only the cancer cells? So far, they have injected the particles directly into tumors, which is of limited value if a cancer has spread.

In Texas, Curley ticked off another list of questions: What’s the best kind of nanoparticle to use and in what dose? How should the nanoparticle be shaped and do some shapes conduct heat better than others? Are the nanoparticles nontoxic, as they appear to be? Only longer-term toxicity studies will tell.

He continued: Is the therapy better suited for some kinds of cancer over others? Should any drugs be taken along with the radio wave therapy to increase its effectiveness?

He’s encouraged by the early success.

“The heating was unbelievable,” Curley said. “We’re literally thinking in terms where this lasts no more than 30 to 60 seconds.”

Six months before his diagnosis, Kanzius had intended to retire.

Cancer — both his ongoing treatment and his search for an alternative — has become a full-time job.

His story by now has been played out in media ranging from local outfits in Lee County and hometown Erie, Pa., to The Los Angeles Times to Readers Digest to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. You can watch a video of a television interview replay on MySpaceTV. The posted description begins “This guy rocks.”

In his spare time, Kanzius works on an equally promising find in alternative fuel development. He discovered that salt water will burn when it’s subjected to the radio field his machine casts and lit with a match. But that’s a story for another day.

Kanzius doesn’t want to be known as the guy who cured cancer.

“I just want to be the guy that comes up with the idea and is working with the researchers,” he said.

Last week he went to M.D. Anderson for another round of tests for his own cancer and to see the progress Curley had made.

“It’s just phenomenal,” Kanzius said.

He wants to offer encouragement — that’s why he holds public talks — but doesn’t want to give false hope.

His cancer appears to be at bay. Preliminary results suggest his last round of treatment was effective. And Curley’s research is speeding at rates uncommon in the medical world.

“Nobody could have ever thought this was possible,” Kanzius said.

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080303/HEALTH/80302048/1075

Researchers target cancer cells; note treatment by SW Florida resident

By MATT CLARK (Contact)

6:12 a.m., Friday, December 19, 2008

MICHEL FORTIER / ROB ENGELHARDT/Erie Times-News

Steven A. Curley, M.D., right, and John Kanzius, inventor of this radio wave transmitter, check over the machine before a test is run in Erie, Pa.

MICHEL FORTIER

Born out of necessity through his own battle with cancer, John Kanzius has developed a technique which may one day eradicate cancer cells in humans with radio waves in a much less invasive fashion than current radiation techniques.

Video

Sanibel Island inventor and cancer patient John Kanzius demonstrates his cancer-fighting machine. Watch video.

They've demonstrated the cancer research "holy grail."

In a manuscript published today, researchers say they have successfully targeted and killed two of the most deadly types of cancer cells, colon and pancreatic, using the treatment invented by Sanibel Island and Erie, Pa. resident John Kanzius.

"This is what everybody's been waiting for," Kanzius said. "Can you target cancer cells? And the answer is 'yes.' Can you kill them? Yes. Can you target specific cancers? Yes."

Though the researchers said the destroyed cancer cells were not in animals or humans, the findings published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Experimental Therapeutics and Oncology have shown once again that a man with no formal medical training -- and who continues his own battle with a rare form of B-cell leukemia -- can develop a treatment capable of killing cancer.

The treatment Kanzius first envisioned in 2003 is hoped to one day go like this:

- A patient will be injected with a solution of small pieces of metal known as nanoparticles, which are attached to lab-created, disease-fighting antibody cells capable of targeting specific cancers.

- The gold nanoparticles, which are so small 75,000 to 100,000 of them can fit across the tip of a human hair, will run through the body, the antibodies attached to them hunting for the specific cancer cells being targeted. Once they find the cancer cells, they burrow inside.

- The patient is then exposed to low-frequency radio waves emitted from the transmitter Kanzius' first designed in the garage of his Sanibel Island home. Somewhat like metal in a microwave, which uses frequencies a million times more powerful to vibrate molecules generating heat, the nanoparticles will heat up, killing the cancer cells, but leaving adjacent cells unharmed.

The researchers working with Kanzius have already demonstrated they can kill cancer cells in laboratory animals using the nanoparticles and radio transmitter while leaving adjacent cells unharmed. Those findings were published Oct. 2007. But those experiments had the nanoparticles injected directly into tumors, not targeted to specific cancer cells -- an accomplishment that has baffled cancer researchers for years.

Lead researcher Dr. Steven Curley, a professor of surgical oncology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, rated No. 1 in cancer treatment by U.S. News and World Report for four of the past six years, told supporters in a letter earlier this month that targeting nanoparticles to specific types of cancers has been accomplished.

"This will be the first manuscript that proves that we can target nanoparticles to a specific abnormality on cancer cells, and increase the killing by getting more nanoparticles into the cells," Curley said.

In the letter, Curley indicated talks with the Food and Drug and Administration are expected to begin soon, possibly within the next few months. When they do, the treatment will be one step closer to human trials, which may occur in months or years.

Also in the coming months, further manuscripts demonstrating the effectiveness in treating leukemia are expected to be released, the letter from Curley said.

Stay tuned to naplesnews.com for additional information on this developing story. In the meantime, examine the Daily News' article and video released in June detailing Kanzius' development of the treatment.

Source

Cancer-killing waves gain national attention

Native of region to talk on '60 Minutes'

Saturday, April 12, 2008

By David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

John Kanzius is going prime time with his promising invention for cancer treatment.

Leslie Stahl will interview the Washington County native, who invented a radiofrequency (RF) generator four years ago to treat cancer, and tell his story tomorrow on CBS Television's "60 Minutes."

"It has gone from a Western Pennsylvania story to a major international story with the '60 Minutes' piece," Mr. Kanzius said from his home in Sanibel Island, Fla.

Successful inventions often end up with more uses than baking soda, and that may be the case with the Kanzius RF generator.

When he developed it years ago, his sole intent was a cancer treatment that worked without side effects.

So far, so good.

Research on his invention is on a fast track at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The growing body of research proves his generator thermally kills cancer cells spiked with RF-reactive nanoparticles.

But last year, Mr. Kanzius discovered his RF generator also burns salt water. When Rustum Roy, a Penn State University water expert and chemist, saw it demonstrated on a YouTube video, he traveled to the laboratory that Mr. Kanzius uses in Erie to witness it firsthand.

Since then he and Mr. Kanzius have signed a cooperative agreement to study and develop the technology for commercial applications, including salt-water desalination, pollution cleanup and using RF to alter solids and metals.

Dr. Roy has shown that RF causes oxygen and hydrogen atoms to separate then reunite, creating a flame more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit and pure water. The RF generator is powered by electricity. The ratio of energy used vs. energy generated has yet to be determined.

"It's such an unbelievable fact -- so unbelievable that no one wants to believe it," Dr. Roy said. "It has one advantage -- an infinite and easy supply" of sea water.

Desalinating salt water while generating recoverable energy "is a tree-hugger's dream," he said. "This is a very major discovery in science."

These days Mr. Kanzius, 64, splits time between Erie and Sanibel Island, while undergoing chemotherapy for b-cell leukemia. He's raising money for the cancer research, has applied for about 50 patents and continues upgrading his inventions.

His story stands out because Mr. Kanzius is neither a doctor nor a college graduate. He holds only a technical degree from the former Allegheny Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. Before retiring, he owned Jet Broadcasting Inc. in Erie, which operated radio and television stations. He never pondered a cancer treatment until he was diagnosed with cancer and witnessed the ill effects chemotherapy and radiation therapy had on fellow patients.

While on chemo, he spent sleepless nights doing research, which eventually made a pile from floor to ceiling. His goal became to kill cancer with physics rather than medicine. Within months he'd built a prototype for his RF generator by using his wife Marianne's pie pans then tested it by injecting metallic particles into hot dogs and steaks. The RF cooked only the injected areas.

His ideas drew early interest from Dr. David A. Geller, co-director of the UPMC Liver Cancer Center, then Dr. Steven Curley, a liver cancer specialist at M.D. Anderson -- the No. 1 cancer research center in the world. They now are conducting research using Mr. Kanzius' equipment and general protocol.

The current hope is to use the Kanzius treatment on a wide range of cancers with added interest in applying the procedure to fungal, viral and bacterial infections.

For now, the goal is developing a means to tag RF-sensitive nanoparticles with antigens or proteins so they infiltrate only cancer cells. Once nanoparticles are inside cancer cells, RF can heat them to deadly temperatures in seconds or minutes without affecting healthy tissue.

Last May, Dr. Curley described the Kanzius project as "the most exciting new therapy for cancer" he's seen in his 20 years of research.

In February, Dr. Geller at UPMC presented a paper to a large group of surgeons at the Academic Surgical Congress in Los Angeles that showed that tumors under the skin can be destroyed with RF when injected with gold nanoparticles developed at Pitt. The research will be published in August in the journal Surgery.

"In looking back after three years of working on the radiowave research, I have more enthusiasm than ever, in part because the machine does generate heat, and gold nanoparticles are excellent enhancers to focus the RF," Dr. Geller said.

The ideal, he said, is to create nanoparticles that serve "as homing pigeons" to cancer.

"There's no question that momentum is growing and the ongoing press coverage, as well as '60 Minutes' coverage, makes me want to be enthusiastic without providing false hope," he said, suggesting that patients seek other forms of treatment in the meantime. "The goal is to move the cancer research forward as quickly as possible to find tomorrow's cure."

Mr. Kanzius describes his experience to date as "an amazing odyssey."

"The sooner it gets into human trials, the happier I'll be," he said.

David Templeton can be reached at dtempleton@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1578.

First published on April 12, 2008 at 12:00 am

Link

Study shows Kanzius' concept works

BY DAVID BRUCE
david.bruce@timesnews.com [more details]
Published: December 19. 2008 12:01AM

What It Means

Researchers at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston have proved they can target cancer cells exclusively and destroy them with John Kanzius' external radio-frequency generator. It clears a significant hurdle in proving the device can successfully treat cancer in humans.

Researchers have shown that they can target cancer cells with tiny pieces of gold and destroy the cells by using John Kanzius' external radio-frequency generator.

The success clears a major hurdle in proving that the Millcreek Township inventor's device can be used to successfully treat cancer in humans.

A scientific article about the targeting will be published today on the Web site of the Journal of Experimental Therapeutics and Oncology. The journal's Web site is www.oldcitypublishing.com/JETO/JETO.html.
[p. 313-326
Noninvasive radiofrequency field-Induced hyperthermic cytotoxicity in human cancer cells using cetuximab-targeted gold nanoparticles
Steven A. Curley, Paul Cherukuri, Katrina Briggs, Chitta Ranjan Patra, Mark Upton, Elisa Dolson and Priyabrata Mukherjee
abstract full text]

"I was pretty excited when the targeting happened," said Steven Curley, M.D., principal investigator for the Kanzius Project at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. "It proves that this has the potential to work, and that it makes sense for us to continue pushing."

The published article is important because it gives the results scientific validity. Scientific journals including JETO contain articles that have been peer-reviewed to meet standards of quality.

The Kanzius Project has gained worldwide attention in the past 12 months. It has been featured on "60 Minutes" and CNN, and written about in major newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times.

The device works by sending radio waves into the body, which heat nanoparticles -- microscopic pieces of gold or carbon -- hot enough to kill the cancer cells in which they are placed.

But the biggest obstacle -- what Curley has called the "so what" question -- has been whether researchers can send the nanoparticles only to the desired cancer cells.

"This paper shows that we can target the surface of certain cancer cells," Curley said.

Curley and his research team did it by linking specific antibodies, or proteins, to the nanoparticles. The antibodies attach to the surface of certain cancer cells and are absorbed, but they don't attach to healthy cells.

Researchers tested pancreatic and colorectal cancer cells that easily absorb a particular antibody, cetuximab. They also used breast cancer cells that don't absorb the antibody as a control group.

Live cancer cells and the treated nanoparticles were placed in specimen dishes and allowed to incubate for 24 hours. They were then blasted with radio waves from Kanzius' device for two minutes.

The results: Nearly 100 percent of the pancreatic and colorectal cells were killed, but hardly any of the control group's cells were destroyed.

"It shows that we can target specific types of cancer," Curley said. "We're now working on other types of cancer cells, including breast, liver, prostate, leukemia and ovarian."

Curley said that he expects to finish writing "six to eight" more scientific manuscripts about Kanzius' device by mid-2009.

One of those papers is expected to be about tests done on blood samples involving Erie-area patients with blood cancers, such as leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

Blood samples were collected at the Regional Cancer Center earlier this year and treated with the RF device to determine if the radio waves killed all the cancer cells without harming healthy ones.

"We received the data, though it was a bit fragmented," Curley said. "The results are interesting, but we need more studies."

In addition to writing papers, Curley and his staff are conducting animal tests with Kanzius' device.

They hope to get approval from the Food and Drug Administration to begin human trials by late 2010. If human trials are approved, Curley has promised that Phase II trials would be held at the Regional Cancer Center, 2500 W. 12th St.

"We are right on target," Curley said. "We have a staff of nine, and we're looking to expand by another five people. I'm keeping them running."

Kanzius said he is confident the device will work on humans.

"This was a big step," Kanzius said in a telephone interview from his winter home in Sanibel, Fla. "If you look at this project as a puzzle, the targeting is the last piece. It's all downhill from here."

DAVID BRUCE can be reached at 870-1736 or by e-mail.

Source

John Kanzius hopes Erie will get cancer trials (AUDIO & VIDEO)

BY DAVID BRUCE
david.bruce@timesnews.com [more details]

AUDIO:
http://goerie.com/audio/0602kanzius

VIDEO:
http://www.gorie.com/video/0602kanzius

KANZIUS Special Section:
http://goerie.com/Kanzius

Published: June 03. 2008 6:00AM

John Kanzius meets with the editorial board about his new developments in his groundbreaking cancer treatment research. (Erie Times-News) Zoom | Buy this photo

It's been a busy spring for John Kanzius.

The Millcreek Township inventor has been the subject of a "60 Minutes" profile about his invention, a radio-frequency generator that has been proved to completely kill cancerous tumors in animals without side effects.

He also has met with Gov. Ed Rendell and U.S. Rep Phil English, of Erie, R-3rd Dist., to seek funding for more research and manufacturing of the device.

This summer, Kanzius will work with owners of Industrial Sales and Manufacturing to build a larger RF device that can be used in human trials.

He has even talked with Hollywood executives about a movie based on his invention.

Kanzius, 64, met Monday with the Erie Times-News Editorial Board.

He spoke for 50 minutes about his invention, which is being tested at world-class research institutes as a cancer-killing machine and a device that converts saltwater to energy.

Q What's the latest information you can tell us about cancer research of your device at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center?

A Researchers at M.D. Anderson have targeted specific cancers that they have proven -- this was the $64,000 question -- can we get the nanoparticles where we want to get them? They have proven they can get them where they want to get them, in specific tumors. That manuscript will be out in July or early August. ... I can't give you more information about it (because) the journals get very upset if the press gets the information and peer-reviews it before they have a chance to send it to their medical people for evaluation.

(Dave Geller, M.D., principal investigator of Kanzius' device at UPMC) has an article coming out in Surgery magazine in August that talks about gold nanoparticles and the ablation of cancers in the livers of rats.

Q Will human trials of your device happen in Erie?

A (Steve Curley, M.D., principal investigator of the device at M.D. Anderson) wants human trials to happen in this town ... and I would like to see that happen. Dr. Curley has assured me that some institution will run the test if they can meet the qualifications.

Whether that is going to be Saint Vincent, whether it will be the Regional Cancer Center or some combination of them, I can't tell you at this point. The water is murky with (Saint Vincent and Hamot) and the RCC, and negotiations with UPMC.

Q How much of an economic impact would hosting human trials have for Erie?

A I see it being a big windfall. Erie will have a device not available elsewhere in the country except for a handful of places, like Houston, Minneapolis, Boston and places on the West Coast. It puts this community in a prestigious and elite status. Patients from Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh will come here for treatment, at least until there are enough devices built to send to those cities.

Q You said there have been numerous offers to buy your project. Are you tempted to sell?

A It is not my intent. My intent is to see by license or whatever, a majority of equipment is manufactured in Erie. Some stuff can't be manufactured here. ... I can't find anybody who wants to make the RF generators for the equipment, which is a very integral part. One manufacturer said they would be glad to make it -- in Mexico. It made me almost turn blue.

Q What is happening with research at Pennsylvania State University about using the device to "burn" saltwater? There has been debate on the subject that it takes more energy to heat the saltwater than the chemical reaction releases.

A Everyone says it's all about "energy in, energy out" but (Rustum Roy, a Penn State professor who is leading saltwater-to-energy research on the device) said it costs $1.35 to make a gallon of ethanol and nobody complains about that and the fact it has more carbon releases in it than gasoline. Everyone says this is green. This is the way to go. (Roy) said, "Wouldn't you rather have something that gives off pure drinking water as a by-product and may be nearly as efficient as ethanol?"

Q Is there going to be a movie about your life and invention?

A I'm waiting for (the movie's producer) to put out a press release. (It's a) major motion picture company in Los Angeles, but they haven't (issued) a press release yet, so I've been asked to embargo that. ... They have mentioned different people (to act in it), but it's the availability of the actors and actresses.

DAVID BRUCE can be reached at 870-1736 or by e-mail.

Source