![\"\"](\"http:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/sp_radiofrequency.jpg\" "\\"sp_radiofrequency\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nAn image of pancreatic cancer cells treated with gold nanoparticles.
\nThe cells on the left received 2 minutes of external radiofrequency (RF)
\nfield treatment resulting in unstable nuclei and intracellular damage.
\nThe cells on the right received no RF treatment and their nuclei and
\norganelles remain intact.\u00a0 (Image courtesy of Dr. Stephen Curley)<\/p>\n
A Trojan Horse\u2026on Fire<\/strong> At his summer home in Sanibel, FL, he used pie pans to create his first RF device. In the garage of his long-time home in Erie, PA, Mr. Kanzius tested the device on America\u2019s favorite ballpark snack. He would eventually use his own money to build a more sophisticated RF generator that Dr. Geller, and later Dr. Curley, went on to use in cancer cell line and animal model studies.<\/p>\n In these studies, nanoparticles are introduced and exposed to low-level RF waves for just a few minutes. The intense heat generated in the infiltrated cells \u201cdenatures proteins, disrupts lipid bilayers, and results in irreparable damage to intracellular structures and organelles,\u201d Dr. Curley and his colleagues at M.D. Anderson explained in their most recent paper.<\/p>\n While the preclinical work has proven successful, there is still much to be done, stressed Dr. Geller.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to kill cancer cells in a test tube, or even an animal,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s another to kill a tumor in a human and make a cancer disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n Reaching the Target Both Dr. Curley\u2019s and Dr. Geller\u2019s groups are now using gold spherical nanoparticles. In their most recently published work, Dr. Curley\u2019s group attached the EGFR-targeted monoclonal antibody cetuximab (Erbitux) to the gold nanoparticles.<\/p>\n Introducing these gold nanoparticles into cell lines of pancreatic and colorectal cancer, which both overexpress EGFR, and exposing them for just a minute to an RF field killed nearly 100 percent of the cancer cells, the M.D. Anderson team reported.<\/p>\n \u201cWe probably wouldn\u2019t use cetuximab in humans,\u201d Dr. Curley noted. \u201cEGFR is highly expressed in many normal tissues, and we would get significant uptake in normal tissue in the RF field.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Geller\u2019s team has shown that they can use RF to heat up liver tumors in a rat model. They used \u201cnaked\u201d gold nanoparticles in the experiments, however, that were injected directly into the tumors. Both Drs. Curley and Geller are still working to find molecules that are highly specific to cancer cells.<\/p>\n \u201cFor each cancer, we\u2019re going to have to come up with unique strategies,\u201d Dr. Geller explained. \u201cWhat works for liver cancer may not work for breast or prostate cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n The Path Forward Texas-based Nanospectra Biosciences, for example, has received FDA approval for a phase I study in patients with unresectable head and neck cancer using a device that emits near-infrared light to heat up gold nanoparticles in tumors. And the German company MagForce developed a device that employs an alternating magnetic field to heat up magnetized nanoparticles; the device is being tested in phase I and II trials in Europe for several cancers.<\/p>\n Other investigators, added Dr. Nicholas Panaro, a senior scientist in NCI\u2019s Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory, are studying different targeting molecules\u2014DNA fragments called aptamers, and diabodies, which are antibody fragments\u2014to see if they can more effectively deliver nanoparticles only to cancer cells.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Therm Med, the company established by Mr. Kanzius to help commercialize his device, is in the process of scaling it up so that it can be used for large animal and eventually human studies. Drs. Geller and Curley believe that with continued progress and funding they can launch initial human trials in the next few years.<\/p>\n \u201cJohn was a one of a kind,\u201d said Dr. Geller. \u201cWe certainly hope to continue the research because that\u2019s what he wanted us to do.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: www.cancer.gov\/ncicancerbulletin Author: Carmen Phillips It began with chemotherapy-induced sleeplessness and some pie pans. At one point hot dogs were involved. It inspired residents of two small communities 1,300 miles apart, and eventually landed in the labs of two major academic medical centers. And, sadly, just 5 weeks ago, the man who began it all died of treatment complications after a nearly 7-year battle with B-cell leukemia. The story of retired radio engineer and executive John Kanzius and the radiofrequency (RF) generator that he dreamed would one day be part of a highly effective cancer treatment captivated readers of Discover magazine and viewers of \u201c60 Minutes.\u201d Now his invention is maneuvering through the steps needed to demonstrate readiness for clinical testing in humans. \u201cRealistically, we still have hoops to jump through and things to prove,\u201d said Dr. Steven A. Curley from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, who, along with Dr. David Geller from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, has been part of this project since its earliest days. \u201cBut I\u2019ll continue to work on this and move it forward because I think it has great promise.\u201d An image of pancreatic cancer cells treated with gold nanoparticles. The cells on the left received 2 minutes of external radiofrequency (RF) field treatment resulting in unstable nuclei and intracellular damage. The cells on the right received no RF treatment and their nuclei and organelles remain intact.\u00a0 (Image courtesy of Dr. Stephen Curley) A Trojan Horse\u2026on Fire RF, Mr. Kanzius […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[258,810,809,811,807,808],"class_list":["post-2220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oral_cancer_news","tag-cetuximab","tag-gold-nanoparticles","tag-md-anderson-cancer-center","tag-monoclonal-antibody","tag-radiofrequency","tag-rf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2220"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2226,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2220\/revisions\/2226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nRF, Mr. Kanzius realized one restless night, is an ideal way to attack cancer cells from outside the body. At low levels, it doesn\u2019t harm healthy tissue, but in a matter of minutes it can heat up metal in the RF field to nearly 130 degrees Fahrenheit. So, figured Mr. Kanzius, why not use RF waves to heat up metal nanoparticles that have found their way into cancer cells?<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>The work completed thus far demonstrates the rapid progression from a concept of blistering malignant cells with RF waves toward precisely focusing RF waves on cancer cells by using nanoparticles with targeting agents attached to them. The initial work by Dr. Curley’s team involved single-walled carbon nanotubes unadorned by a targeting molecule, given to Dr. Curley by a patient he was treating at the time\u2014Dr. Richard Smalley, a Nobel Prize winner for nanotechnology research who died in 2005.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Tackling cancer in this way, said Dr. Piotr Grodzinski, program director for the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer, is \u201cgenerally an attractive idea.\u201d Other researchers, in fact, have developed similar approaches, he added, \u201cwith their own twists.\u201d<\/p>\n