Injected Radioablative Therapy for Cancer Might Be a Possibility

Radio Ablative Therapy is a treatment for certain types of cancers that involves sticking a metal rod in the tumor and send in radio waves in order to heat the cancer up and destroy the cells. The idea comes from the early days of radio when people who worked on the towers noticed that you were safe as long as the workers did not wear metal such as that found in glasses up into the tower.

It does work but one person undergoing cancer treatment wondered if there were a better way to do it rather than sticking metal probes into the cell itself. The idea runs that since the metal is the necessary ingredient for sparking the heat reaction that melted metal may be injected into tumors. The primary targets for the straight or umbrella shaped probe are the primary form of liver cancer, and a form of colon cancer that starts out in the liver . It may seem similar to the tactic used by Magneto in X-Men 2 to escape from his plastic cell.

In many ways, the search for a minimally invasive or noninvasive but effective way to treat cancers has been the "Holy Grail" of the efforts of scientists and researchers. So far it has eluded them but progress has been made. The idea of injecting metal into tumors came to John Kanzius, a retired radio executive while he was undergoing chemotherapy. While he did not undergo the procedure himself and his treatment involved IV trips, drugs and more traditional forms of surgery, he saw young children come in to get treatment for their cancers. They would come in looking happy and bright one day and after undergoing several of the procedures left looking weak and drained. Remembering the problems working on the radio towers he wondered if a better way might not be found.

After getting a second opinion and more successful treatments from the form of cancer he suffered from which turned out not to be leukemia, he decided to inject metals into hot dogs and heat them with radio waves. His idea was if he could only inject the metal into the tumors, the nearby healthy cells would survive. While Reader's Digest comments on the smells of the hot dogs, it also reports the results were encouraging. Only the parts of the hot dogs injected with the metal were affected.

As Kanzius did not have a medical background, he did not expect the reports of his work to be greeted with great excitement from medical professionals. Much to his surprise he found oncologists and cancer researchers were excited by what he had found. He applied for a patent in May of 2005. Eventually, Dr. Steven A. Curley, a professor of surgical oncology in Houston and David Geller, co-director of the Pittsburgh Medical center. Eventually the three met up to begin testing the radioablative therapy procedure.

While Kanzius's radioablative therapy techniques have not yet been approved for use on animals they have shown promising results on laboratory animals. The trio hopes that the new technique will eventually be used to treat lung, liver, breast and prostate cancers.

Sources:

http://www.lifebridgehealth.org/body.cfm?ID=2793

"Spark of Genius." Peter Panepento. Reader's Digest. May 2006, New York, New York.