radiowave treatment theory

[bluEyez6489]

a man from my hometown named john kanzius is apparently in the process of developing a cure for cancer using radiowaves that would kill only cancerous cells (opposed to chemo which kills everything). so far i've only heard positive responses and it seems like there's a lot of faith in the success of his theory.

i know theories involving radiowaves aren't anything new, so i was wondering if anyone knows what's different about kanzius' method opposed to what was previously researched? also, does anyone know what kind of cancers it would be effective on? my dad has a tumor on his kidney, and they found another one near his spine, and i really don't want to see him go through chemotherapy, especially because it's not even guaranteed to work.

[Bailey]

Isn't this the same as radiofrequency ablation which was FDA approved in 1996? It is apparently a very successful treatment involving noninvasive "cooking" of the tumor. Commonly used on liver tumors.
It is not a cure but it is good at controlling the disease.

[delinquent]

interesting......I hope he succeeds that would help millions.

[Carlos]

Isn't this the same as radiofrequency ablation which was FDA approved in 1996? It is apparently a very successful treatment involving SCAM "cooking" of the tumor. Commonly used on liver tumors.
It is not a cure but it is good at controlling the disease.

It's based on the same concept, but the signficant difference is in the way that the cells are targeted and the way the energy is delivered. With radio frequency ablation (RFA) you're essentially inserting a probe into the body and delivering the energy through that probe.

High-powered radio transmitters have no impact on the human body because they need metal as a receptor. The probe that is inserted acts as the receptor and so only the cells around that probe are heated.

The drawbacks to RFA are that it is an invasive form of treatment, requiring the probe to be placed inserted, and that it is "targeted" only in the sense of an area of the body rather than a specific type of cell in the body. Those drawbacks limit the application of the treatment and the overall effectiveness.

Kanzius' approach holds more promise because the concept is to target only cancer cells by targeting specific abnormal proteins unique to those cells. The patient would be injected with nanoparticles with a polar charge that will attach themselves to the identified cells which in turn attract the radiowaves in the same way the probe does in the RFA approach.

It will take a few years to get through all the testing required, but most involved with the project seem quite encouraged by the progress and potential. It could be applied to a wide variety of cancers and make treatment both more effective and less painful for patients.

Plus, the fact that the guy who developed it wasn't a doctor, but a cancer victim who began the experiments by cutting up his wife's pie plates and cooking hotdogs in his house screams out for "A Beautiful Mind" type movie.