He drew pictures for Marianne, leaving them around the house. One showed him as a stick figure curled over a toilet as she took care of him. "A sign of real love," he wrote. "You are my reason for living."
Weary and weak, he tested his machine with hot dogs, then liver, then steak. He injected minerals into the meat and placed the slabs into his machine. To his delight, the injected portions of meat burned. But would it work on people?
Marianne marveled at his ingenuity and determination. She took a walk one night and noticed the brilliant colors of leaves soon to fall from trees.
"Is it a lesson in life?" she wrote in her journal. "Do we see how wonderful, how beautiful, how magnificent someone is, just as we're about to lose them?"
--
The worst of Kanzius' treatment was over by spring 2005, and the cancer this time was in remission.
Reinvigorated, Kanzius knew he needed to get the word out about his discovery. He had lunch with a competitor from his days in the news industry, the managing editor of a local newspaper. He told him about his project, and the editor assigned a reporter to find out more. By summer, articles began to appear, and the community grew interested.
Dr. David A. Geller, co-director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's liver cancer program, read about Kanzius' machine and called him.
Kanzius had secured a patent for his machine, and asked a company that made transmitters to build a model. He sent it to the medical center so Geller could perform tests.
Kanzius shared his theory with his leukemia doctor at M.D. Anderson. Kanzius said he wanted to show his machine to Dr. Steven A. Curley, an oncologist on staff who specialized in radiofrequency cancer treatment.
Doctors already use a treatment called radiofrequency ablation to kill cancer. The method involves inserting needles into tumors and killing them with electrodes. The invasive procedure is limited because it can only reach certain sites, mostly small tumors, and it can damage healthy cells in the surrounding area.
Kanzius' doctor contacted Curley and told him he did not know whether his patient was mad, but his idea had attracted a lot of attention. Curley called Kanzius and asked whether he could find a substance that could attach to cancer cells and burn when hit with radio waves, sparing healthy cells.
