Leukemia Patient Develops Radio Frequency Ablation Variant for Cancers

[Guest guest]

Patient becomes unlikely inventor of cancer-fighting technology

Sunday, July 25, 2004

By Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

During sleepless nights caused by the steroids he was taking during

cancer chemotherapy, Kanzius decided to use his drug-induced

insomnia wisely. He spent the wee hours at his computer, studying

the structure of normal cells and how they differed from cancer

cells. He became fluent in cancer biology, including his own rare B-

cell form of leukemia, and eventually amassed 100 pounds of medical

research. Then he went one step further. Drawing on his background

in electronics and his knack for solving problems, Kanzius, 60,

developed a possible method for treating cancer with radio waves. A

former partner in an Erie broadcasting company, Kanzius said he was

particularly hopeful that his 15-month scientific odyssey had

produced a cancer therapy that will have a minimum of harmful side

effects. " I didn't wake up one day to see if I could cure cancer, " he

said. " I just woke up one day hoping to reduce the suffering. "

As of yet, Kanzius' method has not been tested in animals, much less

proven to work, and it could be years before researchers would be

ready to try using the therapy in human patients or to seek approval

from the Food and Drug Administration. But the invention has

attracted interest and praise from the small group of doctors who are

aware of it. Kanzius also says some biotech firms have expressed

interest in financing its development, though he wouldn't name them.

He applied in May for a patent on his invention, which combines a

device for focusing radio waves on cancer cells with an as-yet

undisclosed technique for sensitizing cancer cells to the effects of

radio frequency radiation. He said his attorneys had cautioned him

against revealing details of his invention until the patent is

approved. But doctors who have reviewed it under confidentiality

agreements are enthusiastic about Kanzius' unlikely creation. One of

them, Dr. J. Mc, director of nuclear medicine at the

Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center in Fort Myers, Fla., said

the invention was " absolutely amazing " and " pretty incredible. " And

Dr. Jan Rothman, an oncologist and hematologist at the Erie Regional

Cancer Center, agreed his former patient's creation " has great

potential. " Dr. A. Geller, co-director of the Liver Cancer

Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said the

invention had potential as a breakthrough if tests confirm that it

works. That commercial firms are interested in developing it is an

achievement in itself. The real story, Mc insists, is how

Kanzius, without a degree in electrical engineering and without a

medical background, came up with a treatment of such promise. "

is onto something very, very big, " said Mc, who became a friend

of Kanzius' and has swapped ideas about cancer therapy while fishing

with him. It's inconceivable, he said, for " someone with his

background to come up with this. This is a movie. "

Medicine vs. electronics

Kanzius always had been interested in medicine. His mother wanted him

to become a doctor, but in the new age of transistors of the 1960s,

his father persuaded him to pursue a grander future in solid-state

electronics.After graduating in 1962 from Trinity Area High School in

North lin, he earned a technical degree from the Allegheny

Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. He landed a job with RCA in

Washington County while he pursued an electrical engineering degree

at the University of Pittsburgh. His plans soon changed, he said,

after RCA assigned him to a project to solve signal distortion

problems in television transmitters that had puzzled company

engineers for years. It took Kanzius a half hour to solve the

problem with a 10-cent part. RCA officials quickly upgraded Kanzius

to special assistant and troubleshooter, sending him across the

country to solve problems with radio and television transmitters.

With his electronic expertise established, he joined Jet Broadcasting

Co. Inc. in 1966, becoming a partner in 1982, then president in 1983.

Jet owned the ABC television station WJET and two radio stations in

Erie, with affiliate companies that owned stations in Pittsburgh;

Youngstown, Ohio; and San .But he decided to end his broadcast

career after he was diagnosed with leukemia in April 2002. He sold

his stations, the last one in November, and retired to focus on his

health. " If something was abnormal, I'd look it up in medical

books, " he said of his condition. " I could pick up my blood tests

and know what I was looking at. " But it took a while before doctors

knew the precise type of leukemia he had. He underwent chemotherapy

in Erie for six months but suffered a relapse. Next, he went to the

Cleveland Clinic and underwent an unsuccessful experimental treatment

at Ohio State University.At wit's end, he sent an e-mail to Dr.

Keating, a leukemia expert at MD Cancer Center in

Houston. " I hope your eyes see this e-mail, " Kanzius wrote, hoping

to persuade Keating to review his medical records and give him a

diagnosis. Keating agreed and ultimately diagnosed rare B-cell

leukemia.

" I think I can cure you, " Keating told him. He prescribed an

aggressive chemotherapy regimen that Kanzius underwent in Erie and

Florida. He met Mc when he was in Florida for a PET scan.By

then, Kanzius had witnessed a parade of sad, sickened, fatigued

patients going through the brutal treatment routine. " You see 2-year-

old kids hoping to make it to 5, " he said. And he recalled watching

his mother and other relatives die of cancer. He was appalled by the

suffering caused by not just the disease, but by chemotherapy and

radiation treatments. It left him with a thought: " There must be

some way to improve this. "

Troubleshooter

Kanzius reverted to his troubleshooting mode. Already schooled in

cancer basics, and still undergoing chemotherapy, he turned to what

he knew best: Trusty radio waves. Kanzius knew that metals exposed

to radio or television transmitters heated up. And, it turned out,

the idea of using radio waves to heat and kill cancer cells is

nothing new: A technique called radio frequency ablation has been

widely used for the past five years to treat inoperable liver tumors

and might also prove effective against such tumors as prostate, lung

and bone. But while radio frequency ablation requires placing needle-

like electrodes directly into the tumor, Kanzius was convinced that

the invasive procedure could be eliminated. Kanzius designed a

complex transmitter that could focus radio waves of different

modulations and multiple frequencies on tumors. While that alone

might be a valuable tool, he decided to try to go further and find a

way of targeting cancer cells to make them more vulnerable to radio

waves. The ability to treat cancer cells while avoiding damage to

healthy cells has been the Holy Grail of cancer therapy for

generations. Kanzius won't detail his technology while his patent is

pending. " All of these technological components already exist, " he

said. " I took a bunch of technology, the best of all of them, and

made a marriage of them. " I enhance cancer cells to accept radio

waves -- absorb the heat without collateral damage, " Kanzius

said. " The tumor gets nothing more than 8 degrees above normal. "

Kanzius tested his invention, burning holes through steaks and organs

and refining the equipment's precision and temperature control.

Geller, who uses radio frequency ablation routinely at UPMC, said

Kanzius' technique would be an advance if it could eliminate the need

to surgically place electrodes in tumors. How broadly the technique

might be used on liver tumors and other cancers will depend on

further refinement of the radio wave device and animal testing of the

cancer-targeting technique, he said. " This could be a revolutionary

breakthrough, " Geller said. " He's proven the basic concepts. "

Geller said he was interested in working with Kanzius to further

develop the method so that it can be used in human patients. " I

would hope UPMC would be the first medical center that would look

forward to testing it on animals and do the first clinical trials, "

he said. Rothman, the Erie oncologist, said Kanzius' method offered

many advantages. It's simple and inexpensive without side effects or

quality-of-life reductions for patients. There would be no limit on

how often a person could receive the treatment.

Although Kanzius' cancer has been in remission since the Keating

treatment, he said, the day could come when he needs to be treated

with his own creation. Radio frequency ablation is used to treat

solid tumors only, so Kanzius said he never expected his invention to

work against leukemia, a blood cancer. But he said Keating had

convinced him it might be effective even against leukemia. " That was

not my intent, " Kanzius said of his inventive efforts. " But that was

a pleasant gift. ... I would like to see kids with cancer grow up. I

would like to see the first person get treatment and know it works,

and see that person's face and the faces of family members. " I would

like to see the doctor say, 'You no longer have pancreatic or

prostate cancer.' That would be the day I'd like to see. "

[Guest guest]

Dear :

I sincerely hope this is not going to be one of the alternative treatments that

get squashed by the big Pharmaceutical Industries in the name of protecting us

from quacks.

Best in health to you,

Leukemia Patient Develops Radio Frequency Ablation

Variant for Cancers

Patient becomes unlikely inventor of cancer-fighting technology

Sunday, July 25, 2004

By Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

During sleepless nights caused by the steroids he was taking during

cancer chemotherapy, Kanzius decided to use his drug-induced

insomnia wisely. He spent the wee hours at his computer, studying

the structure of normal cells and how they differed from cancer

cells. He became fluent in cancer biology, including his own rare B-

cell form of leukemia, and eventually amassed 100 pounds of medical

research. Then he went one step further. Drawing on his background

in electronics and his knack for solving problems, Kanzius, 60,

developed a possible method for treating cancer with radio waves. A

former partner in an Erie broadcasting company, Kanzius said he was

particularly hopeful that his 15-month scientific odyssey had

produced a cancer therapy that will have a minimum of harmful side

effects. " I didn't wake up one day to see if I could cure cancer, " he

said. " I just woke up one day hoping to reduce the suffering. "

As of yet, Kanzius' method has not been tested in animals, much less

proven to work, and it could be years before researchers would be

ready to try using the therapy in human patients or to seek approval

from the Food and Drug Administration. But the invention has

attracted interest and praise from the small group of doctors who are

aware of it. Kanzius also says some biotech firms have expressed

interest in financing its development, though he wouldn't name them.

He applied in May for a patent on his invention, which combines a

device for focusing radio waves on cancer cells with an as-yet

undisclosed technique for sensitizing cancer cells to the effects of

radio frequency radiation. He said his attorneys had cautioned him

against revealing details of his invention until the patent is

approved. But doctors who have reviewed it under confidentiality

agreements are enthusiastic about Kanzius' unlikely creation. One of

them, Dr. J. Mc, director of nuclear medicine at the

Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center in Fort Myers, Fla., said

the invention was " absolutely amazing " and " pretty incredible. " And

Dr. Jan Rothman, an oncologist and hematologist at the Erie Regional

Cancer Center, agreed his former patient's creation " has great

potential. " Dr. A. Geller, co-director of the Liver Cancer

Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said the

invention had potential as a breakthrough if tests confirm that it

works. That commercial firms are interested in developing it is an

achievement in itself. The real story, Mc insists, is how

Kanzius, without a degree in electrical engineering and without a

medical background, came up with a treatment of such promise. "

is onto something very, very big, " said Mc, who became a friend

of Kanzius' and has swapped ideas about cancer therapy while fishing

with him. It's inconceivable, he said, for " someone with his

background to come up with this. This is a movie. "

Medicine vs. electronics

Kanzius always had been interested in medicine. His mother wanted him

to become a doctor, but in the new age of transistors of the 1960s,

his father persuaded him to pursue a grander future in solid-state

electronics.After graduating in 1962 from Trinity Area High School in

North lin, he earned a technical degree from the Allegheny

Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh. He landed a job with RCA in

Washington County while he pursued an electrical engineering degree

at the University of Pittsburgh. His plans soon changed, he said,

after RCA assigned him to a project to solve signal distortion

problems in television transmitters that had puzzled company

engineers for years. It took Kanzius a half hour to solve the

problem with a 10-cent part. RCA officials quickly upgraded Kanzius

to special assistant and troubleshooter, sending him across the

country to solve problems with radio and television transmitters.

With his electronic expertise established, he joined Jet Broadcasting

Co. Inc. in 1966, becoming a partner in 1982, then president in 1983.

Jet owned the ABC television station WJET and two radio stations in

Erie, with affiliate companies that owned stations in Pittsburgh;

Youngstown, Ohio; and San .But he decided to end his broadcast

career after he was diagnosed with leukemia in April 2002. He sold

his stations, the last one in November, and retired to focus on his

health. " If something was abnormal, I'd look it up in medical

books, " he said of his condition. " I could pick up my blood tests

and know what I was looking at. " But it took a while before doctors

knew the precise type of leukemia he had. He underwent chemotherapy

in Erie for six months but suffered a relapse. Next, he went to the

Cleveland Clinic and underwent an unsuccessful experimental treatment

at Ohio State University.At wit's end, he sent an e-mail to Dr.

Keating, a leukemia expert at MD Cancer Center in

Houston. " I hope your eyes see this e-mail, " Kanzius wrote, hoping

to persuade Keating to review his medical records and give him a

diagnosis. Keating agreed and ultimately diagnosed rare B-cell

leukemia.

" I think I can cure you, " Keating told him. He prescribed an

aggressive chemotherapy regimen that Kanzius underwent in Erie and

Florida. He met Mc when he was in Florida for a PET scan.By

then, Kanzius had witnessed a parade of sad, sickened, fatigued

patients going through the brutal treatment routine. " You see 2-year-

old kids hoping to make it to 5, " he said. And he recalled watching

his mother and other relatives die of cancer. He was appalled by the

suffering caused by not just the disease, but by chemotherapy and

radiation treatments. It left him with a thought: " There must be

some way to improve this. "

Troubleshooter

Kanzius reverted to his troubleshooting mode. Already schooled in

cancer basics, and still undergoing chemotherapy, he turned to what

he knew best: Trusty radio waves. Kanzius knew that metals exposed

to radio or television transmitters heated up. And, it turned out,

the idea of using radio waves to heat and kill cancer cells is

nothing new: A technique called radio frequency ablation has been

widely used for the past five years to treat inoperable liver tumors

and might also prove effective against such tumors as prostate, lung

and bone. But while radio frequency ablation requires placing needle-

like electrodes directly into the tumor, Kanzius was convinced that

the invasive procedure could be eliminated. Kanzius designed a

complex transmitter that could focus radio waves of different

modulations and multiple frequencies on tumors. While that alone

might be a valuable tool, he decided to try to go further and find a

way of targeting cancer cells to make them more vulnerable to radio

waves. The ability to treat cancer cells while avoiding damage to

healthy cells has been the Holy Grail of cancer therapy for

generations. Kanzius won't detail his technology while his patent is

pending. " All of these technological components already exist, " he

said. " I took a bunch of technology, the best of all of them, and

made a marriage of them. " I enhance cancer cells to accept radio

waves -- absorb the heat without collateral damage, " Kanzius

said. " The tumor gets nothing more than 8 degrees above normal. "

Kanzius tested his invention, burning holes through steaks and organs

and refining the equipment's precision and temperature control.

Geller, who uses radio frequency ablation routinely at UPMC, said

Kanzius' technique would be an advance if it could eliminate the need

to surgically place electrodes in tumors. How broadly the technique

might be used on liver tumors and other cancers will depend on

further refinement of the radio wave device and animal testing of the

cancer-targeting technique, he said. " This could be a revolutionary

breakthrough, " Geller said. " He's proven the basic concepts. "

Geller said he was interested in working with Kanzius to further

develop the method so that it can be used in human patients. " I

would hope UPMC would be the first medical center that would look

forward to testing it on animals and do the first clinical trials, "

he said. Rothman, the Erie oncologist, said Kanzius' method offered

many advantages. It's simple and inexpensive without side effects or

quality-of-life reductions for patients. There would be no limit on

how often a person could receive the treatment.

Although Kanzius' cancer has been in remission since the Keating

treatment, he said, the day could come when he needs to be treated

with his own creation. Radio frequency ablation is used to treat

solid tumors only, so Kanzius said he never expected his invention to

work against leukemia, a blood cancer. But he said Keating had

convinced him it might be effective even against leukemia. " That was

not my intent, " Kanzius said of his inventive efforts. " But that was

a pleasant gift. ... I would like to see kids with cancer grow up. I

would like to see the first person get treatment and know it works,

and see that person's face and the faces of family members. " I would

like to see the doctor say, 'You no longer have pancreatic or

prostate cancer.' That would be the day I'd like to see. "

Let's keep the list UNCLUTTERED!!!

To do ANY HOUSEKEEPING business such as changing the way you get mail, please

go to mygoups or mail me at

scott_fs@....

[Guest guest]

I have no idea if this treatment will pan out, but there are many

cancer treatments that haven't been 'buried' by the pharmaceutical

industry. As you may know, medical devices (and this would be one of

them) are a big part of the medical services industry, and there are

profits in using those products. X-ray machines, MRIs, CT machines,

dialysis machines, etc. etc. etc. are medical devices which are money-

makers.

Why bury something when you can make money from it?

The idea certainly seems sound; it puts me in mind of those radiation

therapy devices that use beams of particles which are safe to normal

tissue, but fired simultaneously from different angles, provide

lethal energy doses at a single point.

> Dear :

>

> I sincerely hope this is not going to be one of the alternative

treatments that get squashed by the big Pharmaceutical Industries in

the name of protecting us from quacks.

>

> Best in health to you,

>

>

> Leukemia Patient Develops Radio Frequency

Ablation Variant for Cancers

>

>

> Patient becomes unlikely inventor of cancer-fighting technology

>

> Sunday, July 25, 2004

>

> By Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

>

> During sleepless nights caused by the steroids he was taking

during

> cancer chemotherapy, Kanzius decided to use his drug-induced

> insomnia wisely. He spent the wee hours at his computer,

studying

> the structure of normal cells and how they differed from cancer

> cells. He became fluent in cancer biology, including his own rare

B-

> cell form of leukemia, and eventually amassed 100 pounds of

medical

> research. Then he went one step further. Drawing on his

background

> in electronics and his knack for solving problems, Kanzius, 60,

> developed a possible method for treating cancer with radio waves.

A

> former partner in an Erie broadcasting company, Kanzius said he

was

[Guest guest]

I certainly hope you are not referring to radiation therapy use in cancer

treatments because I am in that type of therapy now. It is called linear

accelerator. My nodes have gone down in just three treatments only 15 more to

go.

Best in health to you,

Leukemia Patient Develops Radio Frequency

Ablation Variant for Cancers

>

>

> Patient becomes unlikely inventor of cancer-fighting technology

>

> Sunday, July 25, 2004

>

> By Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

>

> During sleepless nights caused by the steroids he was taking

during

> cancer chemotherapy, Kanzius decided to use his drug-induced

> insomnia wisely. He spent the wee hours at his computer,

studying

> the structure of normal cells and how they differed from cancer

> cells. He became fluent in cancer biology, including his own rare

B-

> cell form of leukemia, and eventually amassed 100 pounds of

medical

> research. Then he went one step further. Drawing on his

background

> in electronics and his knack for solving problems, Kanzius, 60,

> developed a possible method for treating cancer with radio waves.

A

> former partner in an Erie broadcasting company, Kanzius said he

was

Let's keep the list UNCLUTTERED!!!

To do ANY HOUSEKEEPING business such as changing the way you get mail, please

go to mygoups or mail me at

scott_fs@....