Inventor may have breakthrough in killing cancer cells

wkyc.com ^ | :8/22/2007 | Michael O'Mara

[Main Street]

Inventor from Erie, P.A. teams up with leading cancer center.

The work has been quietly been going on for the last three years in a no-frills laboratory in Erie, Pennsylvania. Inventor, John Kanzius, working with Jim and Charlie Rutkowski, have been perfecting a device that will kill cancer cells with a radio frequency.

This humble workspace could soon become the epicenter of one of the most stunning scientific breakthroughs in cancer treatment in years.

Using the Kanzius RF machine and special nanoparticles, it appears that cancer cells can be targeted and killed without harming the rest of the body.

This is a deeply personal mission for John Kanzius. He is struggling to beat leaukemia. And he knows firsthand how tough standard treatments like chemotherapy and radiation can be on the body.

Kanzius told Channel 3's Mike O'Mara that, "If this ends up working they way it looks, it really could be the holy grail of cancer research."

The entire city of Erie is buzzing about John's invention. Two weekends ago, thousands turned out for a motorcycle rally called "Roar On The Shore". All the money is going to help John's cancer research.

Ralph Pontillo is the head of the Erie Manufacturers Association. He is proud that his city can help the Kanzius project.

"It's amazing, said Ralph, "that in the very near future someone is going to stick a pin on a map and say this is where cancer was cured. And that pin is going to be Erie, Pennsylvania. That blows your mind and that is inconceivable."

Former Erie Mayor, Joyce Savocchio, said "there are nights that I think about it and I can't go to sleep. It just enfolds you that you are on the brink of history and something so enormous that you can't imagine it."

The excitement is not limited to Erie, Pennsylvania. In Houston, Texas at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, a team of scientists believe that John Kanzius has the key to something extraordinary.

MD Anderson is one of the most respected cancer centers in the world. 79 thousand cancer patients were treated at the huge campus in Houston last year.

Doctor Steven Curley is leading the research team at MD Anderson. Dr. Curley is the author of over 110 publications and 30 book chapters, many dealing with the treatment of patients with hepotocellular cancer, gallbladder cancer, bile duct cancer, or liver metastases.

Curley is brimming with cautious optimism.

"If we can come up with ways of delivering these particles to the cancer cells, but not to normal cells," Curley said, "this treatment will work. There's not a doubt in my mind. Any kind of cancer, anywhere in the body!"

Doctor Curley's team is ready to publish their first results using laboratory animals. So far, the targeted nanoparticles and the Kanzius RF machine have passed every test.

"There is a great deal of work that has to be done", said Curley. "However, I suspect once the manuscripts are published, there's going to be a real rush of excitement about this whole process. I've already warned John to get ready because the floodgates are about to open."

Kanzius wants to make sure his invention does not get sidelined by an unsympathetic corporation that might not want see an effective treatment on the market.

Said Kanzius, "venture capitalists, big pharmaceuticals that might want to buy this to tempt me and stop the research, not going to happen. There is no amount of money that can buy me off. You can not put a price on a human life."

When the revolutionary treatment is ready for human clinical trials, you can bet that Erie, Pennsylvania will go to the front of the line. And why not, since the inventor lives just a few miles away.

[Main Street]

"In addition, any pharma company would love to have an effective cancer treatment. They would rake in money hand over fist. There is no money to be made on treatments that don’t work and the patients die."

From UPI, July 12, 2006, article 'Cancer drug pipeline on the rise', Katie Siafaca, spokeswoman for New Medicine, a Pro-Drug group, callously states the reason more and more Drug companies are entering research, not for a cure, but for cancer 'treatments'.:

"They did not go after cancer in the old days because it didn't seem like a place where you could make a lot of money," she said.

But that has changed because cancer drugs can now be very expensive, with some costing tens of thousands of dollars per patient, and many patients will receive multiple drugs during the course of their disease.

The use of second- and third-line therapies "has made chemotherapy a very big business because one patient may have three or four different treatments before they expire," Siafaca said.

In addition, a lower rate of efficacy and a higher rate of side effects can often be acceptable in this arena, particularly in advanced cancer patients with no other options. "A lot of drugs all they do is extend life by several months but you can still make money off it," she said.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I’m not optimistic he is solving the energy crisis AND cancer in his basement.

Why not? Have you seen his basement?

:-)

[Boiling point]

I know what you mean about there being many different types of cancer but here is the way my feeble understanding of the process works. Iodine has been used as a contrast for x-rays ever since there have been x-rays. The cancer cells absorb the Iodine molecules and when struck by the focused beam at a certain power setting, it destroys the iodine molecule and takes the cancer cell with it. I was told this by someone that worked on the project. I got the long Physicists explanation but that’s what I got from it.

[farlander]

If only it was that easy. Usually if it sounds too good to be true, it is. It’s impossible to target things cell by cell basis with external beams of whatever - there’s always the surrounding tissue that gets damaged, and there’s way to many cells. If you miss a few, people still die.

We need a specific protein based marker that knows how to attach itself to a specific cancer cell. It’s very difficult to do. If simple iodine absorption was a solution we’d have had a cure long time ago. There is no easy answer here, and anyone selling one is looking to profit on fantasies.

[groanup]

...there is big money in TREATING cancer. Not curing it.

So true. The American Cancer Society would not like this cell zapper.

[Red Badger]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1890090/posts

[Red Badger]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1890090/posts