Kanzius Cancer Treatment Work Continues

In an early postI introduced you all to John Kanzius, a man who I believe defined Practical Creativity. Kanzius applied his working knowledge of radio waves to design a radically different cancer treatment that he initially tested using hot dogs in his home garage. Oh, and did I mention that the only medical background Kanzius had was from what he learned on his own and from his doctors while in conventional treatment for leukemia?

Since that post, Kanzius received a patent for his treatment idea. I was so very saddened to learn that he succumbed to complications of leukemia in early February, just weeks prior to the patent approval.

Fortunately, work on the Kanzius treatment continues under Steven Curley M.D. and Paul Cherukuri, Ph.D. via a research group at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. The doctors and their colleagues deserve kudos for opening their minds to exploration of the ideas of a lay person. Their open curiosity appears to have paid off; the progress report on their research web site is promising:

We have also tested the carbon nanoparticles in malignant tumors growing in the liver of rabbits. Our initial experiments have shown that the presence of the carbon nanotubes followed by treatment with the RF field device led to complete destruction of the tumors. Importantly, there was no damage to any other structures or organs in the animals. A particularly fascinating component of this work is that this RF field generator can theoretically be used to treat cancers in any site of the body. It may also be possible to treat not only solid cancers like colon cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, brain cancer, pancreas cancer, and liver cancer, but also lymphomas and leukemias. It is rare that a cancer treatment approach can have such broad, sweeping application possibilities.

For regular updates or to donate to assist with this research, visit the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation web site.

Practical Creativity in Action: Kanzius Cancer Treatment

Tonight the CBS news series 60 Minutes rebroadcast a piece about John Kanzius, a Florida retiree who invented an exciting new technology with a potential to provide highly targeted, minimally invasive cancer treatment. The Kanzius device uses radio waves and metallic substances injected into a tumor site to heat tumor cells in order to kill them with little to no damage to surrounding tissues.

What excited me is that Kanzius is retired from the radio and television industry, not medical science; he doesn’t even hold a college degree. Kanzius, who is himself fighting terminal Leukemia, came up with his device based on what he knew from building ham radio equipment as a youth. He used pans he procured from his wife’s kitchen cupboards to build the machine, and tested it with hot dogs and a meat thermometer. Talk about Practical Creativity!

The treatment is currently undergoing animal research, and preliminary results are reported to be highly promising. Additional research is being done using nano-technology to potentially carry micro-particles of metal directly to the cancer site — or even cancer cells free-floating elsewhere within the body.

One of my favorite Practical Creativity tips is to borrow ideas from non-related fields of practice and see if you can apply them in your work. I’ll write more about that later. For now, I want to go on the record for wishing Mr. Kanzius and those using his device in research the very best of luck. May he live to see his invention work in human trials.

~cfw