A radio and TV engineer — and ham radio operator — Kanzius became interested in using RF, or radio frequency energy, to treat cancer, after he was diagnosed with B-cell leukemia. His idea: inject the patient with carbon or gold molecules, which are treated to be attracted to cancer cells, and then use a radio transmitter set to a frequency that will heat the special molecules, thus killing the cancer cells they’re in with virtually no side effects.
“I don’t want to give people false hope,” said Dr. Steve Curley of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, who is studying Kanzius’ machine, “but this has the potential to treat a wide variety of cancers.” Kanzius died February 18 from pneumonia — a complication from chemotherapy treatments for his own cancer. He was using conventional cancer therapy because his machine isn’t quite ready for human experiments. He was 64.
Update: As of 2026, Kanzius’s machine has still not received FDA approval.