Local kids support new cancer treatment

FISHERS, Ind. (WISH) - Students at Sandcreek Elementary School in Fishers are helping fight cancer with art. They submitted their drawings to a holiday Christmas card contest sponsored by The Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation.

One student's entry made the cut and will be published with five other cards submitted by artists from around the country.

“A lot of people die every day because of cancer and I just wanted to help stop that,” said contest winner Seth Hutchinson.

The class' connection with cancer started with their teacher, whose husband lost his parents to cancer. That family is now helping raise money for a treatment that's different than anything that’s ever been seen before.

The project is called the Kanzius Non-invasive Radio Wave Treatment.

It’s a homemade cancer killing machine designed by a man desperate in his fight against cancer.

John Kanzius didn't have a background in science or medicine, or a college degree, but he did have a rare form of B-cell leukemia, and years of experience in broadcasting.

Tinkering in the garage of his Pennsylvania home, with his wife's pie pans and hotdogs, Kanzius built The Kanzius Machine.

He died before his invention could save his life, but his idea gave hope to Mark Seger's parents as they each battled cancer here in Indiana.

“It’s exciting to see something that is new, something that has not been done before and could possibly help out many, many people” said Seger.

Here’s how the machine works: Gold nano particles attach to cancer cells. Then radio waves zap and kill those cancer cells without damaging the healthy cells nearby.

It’s a cancer treatment without side effects. There are no drugs and no surgery.

“We’re the world's most promising cancer treatment because there is nothing like it. That's the hope that it provides,” said Mark Neidig with the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation.

Right now research is under way at The University of Texas and The University of Pittsburgh. Doctors are pushing forward toward human clinical trials. The hope is that they will begin in the next few years.