FDA checking out local man's possible cancer cureWBBH-TV
updated 12:12 p.m. CT, Sat., Dec. 20, 2008
SANIBEL ISLAND: A Sanibel man used his background in broadcasting to discover a possible cure for cancer. Now, his findings have been further validated by newly-released research.
A report published Friday shows promising new advances in the possible cancer cure John Kanzius dreamt up in his Sanibel Island garage.
He began creating his machine five years ago after undergoing cancer treatment himself and seeing children go through the same thing.
"I said, ‘This sucks, there has got to be a better way. This treatment is barbaric,'" Kanzius said. "I'd like to see that treatment be seven or eight seconds so that the person didn't even know they had the treatment. They'd think they had an X-ray."
With no medical background, the former broadcaster turned to what he knew - radio. His idea is to fuse cancer cells with gold nanoparticles, then fry them with radio waves.
Researchers who ran with the idea thought they'd have to inject the particles directly into the cancer cells. But Friday's report shows the treatment can travel through the body and specifically target cancer cells.
Kanzius’ research that began on Sanibel Island has made it all the way to the Food And Drug Administration.
Now, the FDA will help determine how soon doctors can try Kanzius' treatment on patients.
"You only talk to the FDA when you might have a treatment that's going to make it into humans," Kanzius said.
The treatment has worked on colon and pancreatic cancer in small animals. Kanzius hopes to begin testing it in larger animals this year and schedule tests in humans in the next two or three years.
"It's like hitting the lottery. It just seems to be working the way I visualized it," he said.
Kanzius' goal is to see clinical trials in humans lined up by the end of this year.
If that happens, some of those trials will likely take place within Lee Memorial Health System.
URL:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28319051/
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