Nobel Winner Boosts Kanzius’ Cancer Theory

Jul. 17–A Texas research team led by Nobel Prize-winning chemist Richard Smalley believes Millcreek Township inventor John Kanzius might have uncovered the missing piece in the search for a cure for cancer.

The team now wants to lend its expertise to help put Kanzius’ theory on a fast track to find out whether it can work effectively in live patients.

Smalley, one of the world’s top minds in the field of nanotechnology, has already started work on trying to determine whether Kanzius’ theory –which uses directed radio waves — can be partnered with the use of carbon nanotubes to target and destroy cancer cells.

His Rice University-based team plans to work with researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to marry the two disciplines.

Results from the early rounds of research could be completed within six to 12 months, said Paul Cherukuri, a Rice University researcher and a member of Smalley’s team.

“Until we do the experiments, we won’t know. But it holds so much excitement,”Cherukuri said. “This is such an exciting possibility that so many people are just slapping their heads saying, ‘Why didn’t I think of it already.’”

Smalley’s research group is part of the Alliance for NanoHealth — a collaborative effort involving six universities that is working to bridge the gaps between medicine, biology, public policy and nanotechnology. It joins a growing list of high-level researchers who are working to see whether Kanzius’ theory can work in live patients.

Kanzius, 61, developed the radio-wave theory in 2003 and 2004 while he was undergoing chemotherapy treatments for a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The theory, developed through Kanzius’ knowledge of radio engineering and his interest in medicine, involves the use of directed, high-powered radio waves.

According to Kanzius’ theory, the waves can be directed at enhanced cancer cells, and the energy contained in those waves creates a localized hyperthermia — or small fever — that destroys the cancer cells’ membranes. Without their protective shells, the cells die and are carried out of the body through normal kidney functions.

Kanzius — a retired Erie radio and television station owner –has no formal background in medicine.

But his theory, which is outlined in five applications with the U.S. Patent Office, has sparked a wave of optimism among researchers in Pennsylvania and across the country.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center this spring began testing Kanzius’ theory on liver tumors found in lab rats.

The MD Anderson Center –which treated Kanzius during his battle with cancer — announced in June that it plans to begin parallel tests on the theory this fall. Its tests will likely be conducted on larger animals, such as rabbits and pigs, and will include other forms of cancer.

Kanzius said the recent addition of Smalley’s research group is expected to push the project forward at a faster pace.

“You’ve got the most brilliant minds in the world working on it now,” Kanzius said. “It seems to me they are convinced this is going to work. I’ve been very cautious about this. But they are convincing me this is very doable.”

Smalley, like Kanzius, has been waging an on-and-off battle with lymphoma. He was not available for comment because of his latest treatments.

According to his biography, Smalley won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1996 and is widely known among scientists for his discovery of the C60 molecule –a soccer-ball-shaped molecule.

His current research involves carbon-based nanotubes — tiny tubes that are known for their ability to conduct electricity.

Cherukuri, who will play a key role in the Rice research, said researchers believe they can attach the nanotubes to cancer cells and tune the directed radio waves to work in tandem with the tubes.

He equates the use of nanotubes to a lens that can focus the directed radio waves on individual cells without harming healthy cells.

“The exciting part of this is the clinical need — the carbon nanotubes being a non-invasive way of killing cancer cells without hurting any healthy cells in the body,” Cherukuri said.

But while scientists say the theory is sound on paper, they must first make sure it can be applied without any side effects before it can be considered a cure.

“The theory behind it is very sound,” said Steven A. Curley, M.D., a professor of surgical oncology at the MD Anderson Center and one of the world’s leading experts on radio-frequency ablation. “But before it is used in a single human being, we will have it down to a fine art. The reality is you’ve got to prove principle first and prove you can do it safely before you can treat even one person.”

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