Machine to Cure Cancer

We see it so many times, people who face difficult life challenges who don't let their pain take over. Instead, they use their determination to help others. This month, AccentHealth profiles one man who was diagnosed with leukemia, which inspired him to develop a machine, which hopefully, in the future, will be able to help others going through the same thing.

When John Kanzius retired to Sanibel Island, he thought he'd fish and relax, but instead ended up fighting for his life after being diagnosed with leukemia. Kanzius turned to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas for treatment. While getting chemotherapy, he found himself haunted by the faces of fellow cancer patients. He tells us, "I saw way too many young people die before their time."

Kanzius started thinking and tinkering. He had worked in radio his whole life. He picked up some transmitters, as well as a few of his wife's pots and pans, and designed a machine to battle cancer. He says, "I wondered if I could make the cancer cells act like little radio receivers … and when they picked up the signal, they would get hot, they would create a fever, and the cancer cell would die."

He showed it to his oncologist, Dr. Michael Keating, of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center's Department of Leukemia. Keating tells us, "It was an attractive concept, to be able to kill off the cells without invading the patient's body … so that was the power of a good idea."

His doctor then took his patient's invention to a cancer surgeon, who thought of using microscopic metal bits to conduct the heat from the radio waves. Here's how it works: Inject the metal bits, known as nanoparticles, into the tumors and direct radio waves in. The radio waves then heat the metal and destroy the cancer cells. The early results are promising.

Dr. Steven Curley, a Surgical Oncologist at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, explains, "If we can target these nanoparticles to get into the cancer cells and then do this treatment, there won't be a lot of the side effects that people usually associate with chemotherapy drugs."

Doctors hope the machine will eventually be used to fight all types of cancers, including breast cancer and liver cancer, though human trials are still three to four years away. While the inventor is still fighting leukemia, he hopes his discovery will make a difference. Kanzius says, "We need to treat people's cancers in a more humane way. If nothing else, I hope I have changed the prevailing thinking of the medical world."

Another amazing aspect to this story: Kanzius has leukemia, or cancer of the blood or bone marrow. This type of cancer is much more fluid, flowing throughout his entire body. The treatment that he developed is actually so targeted, zeroing in directly on the cancer cells, that it would be more difficult to use it for his type of cancer. He says, however, that he never invented the machine for himself. He just wanted to help people that he saw who were suffering. One man and his machine, trying to change the world.

http://www.accenthealth.com/features/200803/