Scott Bremner

Scott,

I am very excited about Mr. Kanzius research and possible treatment for cancer. Of course, having invested in Erie for many years myself. I hope the little town benefits and prospers with Mr. Kanzius solution however; we need to see things calmly, recognize reality and try to understand what the current situation is.

From my point of view Erie, even if they want to trough money into the project, can not positively contribute to this project at this time and there is nothing more that anybody could do about it. I also do not think your statements about Mr. Kanzius tough call is realistic at this time.

Let me elaborate:

Below is an extract from Mr. Kanzius web site:

http://www.kanziuscancerresearch.org/index.htm

“The treatment concept is relatively simple but difficult to achieve: unique physical characteristics (a protein, a receptor, etc.) of specific cancer cell lines are identified, a “targeting molecule” is designed that will seek out and attach to or penetrate through that unique site, the targeting molecule is chemically attached to a gold nanoparticle or carbon nanotube, and the combination is injected into the bloodstream of the patient. The targeting molecule(s) eventually delivers the nanoparticle(s) to the cancer cell(s). It is particularly exciting that metastatic cancer cells might also be targeted. Exposure of the area to the radiowaves causes the nanoparticles to warm sufficiently to kill the cancer cells. This will require an extensive research effort, especially to be able to ultimately treat the variety of cancers potentially susceptible to this treatment approach.”
Obviously the concept is brilliant and regardless if Mr. Kanzius’ machine ever works or not I am pretty sure he will probably get the Nobel price one day.
Now, according to the web site this is where the things are right now:
“The next challenge is getting nanoparticles inside only the cancer cells, which Dr. Curley said is a feasible proposition for most cancers.”
I am afraid that I might sound really stupid but I am pretty sure nobody in Erie has the technology or the know-how to identify cancer cells within a living tissue inside the body. Most of the things I heard about cancer is that first people must take a tissue sample and do some testing in a lab to determine if it is cancer or not. Once you take the tissue out of the body the tissue obviously dies. I know that MRI and X-rays technology are making progress but they are not at the cell level yet.
See, the basic question at this time is how we do identify “only” cancer cells among millions possible billions of cells inside the bodies. Once we identify the cancer cells then we could kill them.

I guess the answer to that questions may be more easily found by people doing cancer research for a long period of time. I believe that is the reason why Mr. Kanzius is doing research in other labs established a long time ago with very sophisticated equipment.

I know I am going to sound stupid but think about this. Once somebody precisely identifies “only” the cancer cells it becomes secondary how you kill them. Another option could be then that once you have “targets cells” them you could kill them with radiation, chemicals, heat or cold at that time it really does not matter. The bad guys are already labeled with a Nano particle flag of some type.

So, the way to successfully identify cancer cells within a living organism might not even be covered by Mr. Kanzius research papers and patents. If indeed this is the case then Mr. Kanzius can not possible be the final decision maker about Erie or not Erie therefore your statement about the tough call seems very unfair to me.

The other point I want to make is that even if Mr. Kanzius treatment works. It will only be a treatment for cancer not a cure for cancer. Every patient who ever had cancer knows you only go into remission; you are not cured from cancer. To truly cure cancer somebody has to figure out a way to know why or how the cancer starts and therefore establish a mechanism to prevent it.

As I said before I sincerely wish that both Mr. Kanzius and Erie are extremely successful but please let’s try to see things clearly first. More importantly do not blame people for not doing things that are way beyond their capabilities.

Mr. Reyes,

While I understand that Erie can not generate the total sum necessary to take the research over the finish line, there is still much that could be done.
Politicians could rally the public to ask state and federal lawmakers, the Governor and others to seriously consider the research for funding.
Hospital administrators could set aside individual agendas to cooperate mutually to prove to Dr. Steven Curley that Erie is worthy to be chosen as a site for human trials (and the 40 million dollar economic impact).
Finally, ask yourself a question:
If Canada, Texas, Saudi Arabia, Colorado and others can already see the potential, what is Erie (and PA) missing?

Thanks for stopping by,
Scott

Scott,

I do not even believe the issue at this time is money but speed and promptness in the research.

In order to locate the cancer cells within the body I have to assume that they are using proprietary machines and technology based on their own labs.

In order to do the same in Erie we must first have the labs. So, the questions are: does Mr. Kanzius build the machines in Erie or he builds the labs to find and flag the “cells” first.

I have to assume that to build a lab of that characteristics we are talking about a lot of money but also people and machines that are not readable available. Again, according to Kanzius Web site his research papers and patents only cover how to fry the cells but I might be wrong.

As I said in my original post, I doubt seriously that the other labs will want to relocate to Erie. Also, probably some of those labs received public money when they started a long time ago.

I do not disagree that building labs for the future is a great idea. In fact, I am the first proponent to do R&D in Erie but it just not happen overnight. Going back to my original point unless Mr. Kanzius illness goes into remission with traditional methods I doubt seriously that Mr. Kanzius will be willing to wait for Erie to build state of the art labs with or without public money.

I guess the other people offering money to Mr. Kanzius is because they already had the money allocated for medical research way in advance rather than just making the call now.

Regards,