John Kanzius

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This article is about the inventor John Kanzius. For the 15th century theologian, see John Cantius.
John S. Kanzius
Born March 1, 1944(1944-03-01)
Washington, Pennsylvania
Died February 18, 2009 (aged 64)
Fort Myers, Florida
Cause of death Pneumonia
Residence Sanibel, Florida
Home town Erie, Pennsylvania

John S. Kanzius (March 1, 1944 – February 18, 2009), was an American inventor, radio and TV engineer, one-time station owner and ham radio operator (Call Sign K3TUP) from Erie, Pennsylvania. He invented a method that has the potential to treat cancer, inspired by his own battle with the deadly disease. [1] [2] He also demonstrated a device that can "burn salt water". Both effects involve the use of his radio frequency transmitter.

Kanzius, an autodidact, stated that he was motivated to research the subject of cancer treatment by his own experiences undergoing chemotherapy for treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.[3][4]

Contents

[edit] Cancer therapy

Kanzius RF Therapy is an experimental cancer treatment that employs a combination of either gold or carbon nanoparticles and radio waves to heat and destroy cancer cells without damaging healthy cells.[5][6][7]

The specific absorption rate for radio waves by living tissue in the proposed wavelengths and intensity levels is very low. Metals absorb this energy much more efficiently than tissue through dielectric heating; Richard Smalley has suggested that carbon nanotubes could be used to similar purpose.[8] If nanoparticles were to be preferentially bound to cancer sites, cancer cells could be destroyed or induced into apoptosis while leaving healthy tissue relatively unharmed.[9] This preferential targeting represents a major technical challenge. According to a presentation by Steven Curley, the types of cancer potentially treatable using Kanzius RF therapy include essentially all forms of cancer.[10]

Kanzius built a prototype Kanzius RF device in his home, and formed Therm Med., LLC to test and market his inventions.[11][12] The device was successfully tested at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in 2005.[2] As of 2007-04-23, preliminary research using the device at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston[13][14][15] and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center[11] has shown early promise. If federal approval is granted, testing on human patients may follow.[9][16][4]

[edit] Water-related discovery

Later in 2007, Kanzius announced that the same radio frequency transmitter can also be used to burn hydrogen electrolyzed from salt water.[14] [17] The discovery was made accidentally while he was researching the use of radio waves for desalination. Kanzius said that "In this case we weren't looking for energy, we were looking for something that might do desalinization. The more we tried desalinization, the more heat we produced, until we got fire".[17] Kanzius admitted that this process could not be considered an energy source, as more energy is used to produce the RF signal than can be obtained from the burning gas and stated in July 2007 that he never claimed his discovery would replace oil, asserting only that his discovery was "thought provoking."[18] The details of the process are still unreleased pending the issuance of a patent.[18]

Kanzius proposed that the flame is produced by burning of hydrogen and oxygen, released from the water by radio waves "forcing together" the "normally separated" hydrogen and oxygen in the water, a process he calls "reunification". [18] In water (H2O), hydrogen is covalently bonded to oxygen, and thus the process must "reunite" pairs of hydrogen atoms and pairs of oxygen atoms, releasing dihydrogen (H2) and dioxygen (O2). The energy from the radio waves is absorbed by the water and splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen which then react together to reform the water and re-release the energy and form a flame. In other words, the process turns radio energy into chemical energy, which then turns to heat and light energy, but does not "take energy from water". Rather, energy is put into the water in order to break it up into its components, which now may combust. The water torch, a form of oxyhydrogen torch, is an earlier example of the process of breaking down water and then recombining oxygen and hydrogen to release heat and light energy.

The red flame and non explosive form of burning[19] suggest that other chemicals are involved in the fire, and if the claims are true, may be the chlorine released from the melted salt (NaCl).

Nevertheless, this discovery may be a clean way to break down water into its elements and perhaps a cheaper way than electrolysis which in most forms produces toxic output from chemical reactions with the electrodes, or otherwise is produced with platinum electrodes, which are very expensive. It is difficult to compare the processes, when no chemical, physical or numeric details are actually known, except the claims that RF heats up the water, breaks it down into its elements and that it then combusts.

Kanzius' experiment has been confirmed by Rustum Roy, a materials scientist at Pennsylvania State University, in a demonstration before the Material Science faculty, using Kanzius' RF transceiver[20], which Kanzius had brought to the lab for the day.[14] On his website, Roy writes: "It is clear that Mr. Kanzius has demonstrated the ability to dissociate aqueous solutions of sodium chloride at normal sea water concentrations into hydrogen and oxygen."[20][14][17]

According to Roy, "The salt water isn't burning per se, despite appearances. The radio frequencies act to weaken the bonds between the elements that make up salt water, releasing the hydrogen. Once ignited, the hydrogen will burn as long as it is exposed to the frequencies."[21] The temperature and flame color varies with water solutions and concentrations.[21]

Hydrogen gas burns with oxygen, while releasing heat, and turning into water - which has a lower energy content than the original two elements. In order to reproduce hydrogen and oxygen gas, external energy must be introduced into the low-energy water (compound). Philip Ball, a consulting editor at Nature and author of "H2O: A Biography of Water", is highly critical of any theory of water as a fuel, both in general, and specifically as an alternative to traditional fuel sources. Although he says that Kanzius' discovery itself needs to be verified through careful experiments, he states that "water is not a fuel" and "[w]ater does not burn". Ball also states that according to the laws of thermodynamics, it is "impossible to extract energy by producing hydrogen from water and then burning it, as this would be a basis for a perpetual motion machine." He is critical of lack of inquiry in the media reports about bogus science.[22] Ball writes "Here, however (for what it is worth) is the definitive verdict of thermodynamics: water is not a fuel."

[edit] Death

John Kanzius died from pneumonia on February 18, 2009, at a hospital near his winter home near Sanibel, Florida. The pneumonia developed as complication after two recent rounds of chemotherapy.[23][24]

[edit] Patent applications

Published patent applications as of 16 September 2007:

Systems and methods for Combined RF-induced hyperthermia and radioimmunotherapy

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Christopher J. Gannon, MD; Paul Cherukuri, PhD, Boris I. Yakobson, PhD, Laurent Cognet, PhD, John S. Kanzius, Carter Kittrell, PhD, R. Bruce Weisman, PhD, Matteo Pasquali, PhD, Howard K. Schmidt, PhD, Richard E. Smalley, PhD, Steven A. Curley, MD (October 24, 2007). "Carbon nanotube-enhanced thermal destruction of cancer cells in a noninvasive radiofrequency field". Cancer (Wiley) 110: 2654. doi:10.1002/cncr.23155. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/116834125/HTMLSTART?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0. Retrieved on 2007-10-31. "Our results demonstrate that SWNTs can be used as a therapeutic agent to treat malignant tumors through RF-induced thermoablation, not just as a vector for the delivery of anticancer agents.". 
  2. ^ a b Klune, J.R.; Jeyabalan, G., Chory, E.S., Kanzius, J., Geller, D.A. (February 2007). "Pilot investigation of a new instrument for non-invasive radiofrequency ablation of cancer". Journal of Surgical Research 137 (2): 263. doi:10.1016/j.jss.2006.12.293. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0022480406009127. Retrieved on 2007-09-17. "Exposure to the radiowave field produced in vitro cell death as well as in vivo tissue destruction when metal ion enhancer solutions were utilized. Future work will focus on specific tumor destruction with tagged enhancer solutions and targeting of in vivo tumors.". 
  3. ^ Associated Press (2005-05-11). "Center to Test Radio Wave Cancer Treatment". First Coast News. http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/usworld/news-article.aspx?storyid=37036. Retrieved on 2007-09-15. 
  4. ^ a b "Cancer Patient Invents Treatment Machine". CBS13. August 27, 2007. http://cbs13.com/health/health_story_240004016.html. Retrieved on 2007-09-10. 
  5. ^ doi:10.1002/cncr.23155
  6. ^ Paul Cherukuri; Christopher J. Gannon, Tonya K. Leeuw, Howard K. Schmidt, Richard E. Smalley, Steven A. Curley and R. Bruce Weisman (2006-12-12). "Mammalian pharmacokinetics of carbon nanotubes using intrinsic near-infrared fluorescence" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 103 (50): 18882–18886. doi:10.1073/pnas.0609265103. http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/103/50/18882.pdf. 
  7. ^ C. J. Gannon, P. Mukherjee and S. A. Curley. "In vitro gold nanoparticle targeting enhances non-invasive radiofrequency destruction of human gastrointestinal malignancies". http://www.asco.org/portal/site/ASCO/menuitem.34d60f5624ba07fd506fe310ee37a01d/?vgnextoid=76f8201eb61a7010VgnVCM100000ed730ad1RCRD&vmview=abst_detail_view&confID=45&abstractID=10550.  Poster presented at the 2007 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium by Dr. Christopher J. Gannon, MD.
  8. ^ Peter Panepento (2007). "Cancer Therapy Takes Next Step". Erie Times-News. http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/439566/cancer_therapy_takes_next_step. Retrieved on 2007-10-31. 
  9. ^ a b "'Hurst hosts Kanzius cancer symposium". Mercyhurst College. 2007-04-23. http://www.mercyhurst.edu/news/press_releases/detail.php?id=1081&m=04&y=2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-16. 
  10. ^ RF-Induced Thermal Destruction of Cancer Cells Presentation by Steven Curley, accessed November 2, 2007
  11. ^ a b "Cancer survivor John Kanzius isn't a doctor". Fox News. 2007-05-11. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156268,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-09-16. 
  12. ^ David Templeton (2005-02-20). "UPMC set to test cancer treatment". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05051/459069.stm. Retrieved on 2007-10-31. 
  13. ^ "Bio for Dr Steven A. Curley". Alliance for NanoHealth. 2007-02-13. http://www.nanohealthalliance.org/events-2/events-1/nanoparticles-as-intracellular-targets-to-produce-rf-induced-thermal-destruction-of-cancer-cells/. Retrieved on 2007-09-16. 
  14. ^ a b c d O'Mara, Michael (2007-09-12). "Salt water fuel gets major university review". WKYC. http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=74285. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.  Note: This video transcript, although published in September 2007, contains quotes by Kanzius from May, as the video contained archive footage. For more information, please see the discussion on this issue.
  15. ^ Gannon, Christopher J.; Cherukuri, Paul; Yakobson, Boris I.; Cognet, Laurent; Kanzius, John S.; Kittrell, Carter; Weisman, R. Bruce; Pasquali, Matteo; Schmidt, Howard K.; Smalley, Richard E.; Curley, Steven A. (2007). "Carbon nanotube-enhanced thermal destruction of cancer cells in a noninvasive radiofrequency field". Cancer Dec. 2007: 2654. doi:10.1002/cncr.23155. 
  16. ^ David Templeton (2007-05-02). "Cancer research inspires Erie community". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07122/782492-114.stm. Retrieved on 2007-09-17. "Dr. Curley has submitted two research manuscripts for publication and was unable to provide the latest results. But he said he is testing the treatment of human cancer strains in animals. (...) "This is the most exciting new therapy for cancer that I have seen in over 20 years of cancer research," he said." 
  17. ^ a b c O'Mara, Michael. Burning Water. Erie, P.A.: WKYC. Retrieved on 2007-09-14. Note: This broadcast video, although aired in September 2007, contains archive footage of Kanzius from May. For more information, please see the discussion on this issue.
  18. ^ a b c Ogden, Shannon (2007-07-05). "Salt Water Fuel". First Coast News. http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/mostpopular/news-article.aspx?storyid=85990&provider=top. Retrieved on 2007-07-26. 
  19. ^ See Hydrogen combustion- on Wikipedia: "When mixed with oxygen across a wide range of proportions, hydrogen explodes upon ignition. Hydrogen burns violently in air. It ignites automatically at a temperature of 560 °C.[12] Pure hydrogen-oxygen flames burn in the ultraviolet color range and are nearly invisible to the naked eye, as illustrated by the faintness of flame from the main Space Shuttle engines (as opposed to the easily visible flames from the SRBs)."
  20. ^ a b Roy, Rustum (2007-09-14). "Response to email". rustumroy.com. http://www.rustumroy.com/response_to_email.htm. Retrieved on 2007-09-15. 
  21. ^ a b Templeton, David (2007-09-09). "Salt water as fuel? Erie man hopes so". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07252/815920-85.stm. Retrieved on 2007-09-10. 
  22. ^ Ball, Philip (September 14, 2007). "Burning water and other myths". Nature News. http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070910/full/070910-13.html. Retrieved on 2007-09-14. 
  23. ^ "John Kanzius has died". Erie Times-News. http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090218/NEWS02/902189983. Retrieved on February 18, 2009. 
  24. ^ "Sanibel remembers innovator John Kanzius". Fort Myers News-Press. http://www.news-press.com/article/20090305/NEWS0116/903050325/1075. Retrieved on March 5, 2009. 

[edit] External links

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