Some good news

I’m starting to bum myself out with all the bad news and worse people about which I’ve been writing. But all is not lost here in America, land of the free, home of the “oh, what the hell, let’s give it a try.”

Last night, “60 Minutes” profiled John Kanzius of Erie, PA, a retired radio technician who was diagnosed with leukemia a few years ago. While undergoing one of his endless rounds of chemotherapy, and watching the eyes of the children who were his fellow travelers down this debilitating path, he told himself he had to do something to help find a better cancer treatment – one with no side effects.

Unable to sleep from the treatments, a thought grabbed him in the middle of the night. He went to the kitchen and pulled out some pie plates, took them to the garage, and started tinkering. In a few days he had cobbled together a machine that transmitted concentrated radio waves into the body. While harmless to people, radio waves will rapidly heat metals. Kanzius’ theory was that if you injected a liquid metal into a tumor and bombarded it with radio waves, the waves would heat the tumor and kill the cancer cells while doing no collateral damage to the patient. He tested the theory by injecting and bombarding….a hot dog. (Does it get any more American than that?)

Kanzius then spent $200,000 of his own money making a more sophisticated version of his device, which is now being tested in two major medical centers and being hailed by some as the most promising new cancer treatment in a very long time – perhaps ever. It’s worked great on rats, but human trials are still several years off, and Kanzius, alas, may not live to see them.
This is still a great country, with great dreamers, unafraid to challenge the impossible. They have to swim up steam every day to realize those dreams, but in this country you can still beat the establishment, the bureaucracy and the politicians with a better idea.

To see the “60 Minute” segment online click here: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml