BIOELECTRICITY - Electronics Zero in on Cancer Cells

[Guest guest]

Shan' note: Using electricity to cure ailments was done back in the late

1800s. The cancer industry was established by the AMA in the 1930s and

squelched/stopped/killed all uses of bioelectricity, some of which have been

very successful at healing cancer plus many other diseases. So, it is

refreshing that we have this development, right out in the open. I wonder how

successful VT & UC at Berkeley will be in getting this technology into

widespread use by oncologists who makes huge profits from the three

**traditional "

methods** (while disregarding the patient) of surgery, chemotherapy, and

radiation. So far they, the AMA & the FDA have stifled innovations such as

this. This article is from the EE Times Asia, I don't know if it was covered

by media here in the USA.

(http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm)

 

Electronics Zero in on Cancer Cells

_http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/electronics_zero_in_on_cancer_cells.htm_

(http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/electronics_zero_in_on_cancer_cells.htm)

Posted: 03 Sep 2007

 

 

Curing cancer is usually the domain of _medical_

(http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800459080_1034362_NT_8af6d097.HTM) doctors, but

biomedical _engineers_

(http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800474975_499495_NT_cf3a61b6.HTM) at Virginia

Tech and the University of California at Berkeley have now invented a

promising electronic therapy. Using short _electrical pulses_

(http://www.eetasia.com/SEARCH/ART/electrical+pulses.HTM) that target only

cancer cells,

together with real-time monitoring via electrical impedance tomography, the

procedure has already been shown to cure cancer in lab rats.

 

**We have invented an inexpensive, minimally invasive surgical technique

that makes use of irreversible _electroporation_

(http://www.eetasia.com/SEARCH/ART/electroporation.HTM) , essentially killing

cancer cells with short

electrical pulses while leaving neighboring healthy cells unharmed,** said

bioengineering professor Rafael Davalos of Virginia Tech*s School of

Biomedical Engineering and Science. **We are also using electrical-impedance

tomography to monitor progress and make sure all the cancer cells get

treated.**

 

Work has progressed from cell cultures to rats to mice, with human trials

on prostate cancer slated for next year. If those trials are successful,

curing other types of cancer will be tried in humans.

 

Opening pores

 

Engineers have been using electroporation since the mid-1960s to take

electronic control of the pores in a living cell*s outer membrane. For

instance, genetic engineers routinely use electroporation to load DNA sequences

into cells. By using 2,500V electrical pulses that are 100µs long, pores can

be opened in any cell membrane, allowing liquids to flow in and out. Other

cancer researchers use electroporation to temporarily make tumor cells more

permeable to cancer-killing drugs than to the surrounding healthy tissue.

 

Davalos and UC-Berkeley collaborator Boris Rubinsky, however, use extended

sessions with the electrical pulses to electrocute the cancer cells,

permanently opening pores that kill the cell as its contents drain out.

 

**We use needle electrodes to surround the cancerous area, then we use

external electrodes to monitor our progress with electrical-impedance

tomography,** said Davalos. **When the pores stick open on a cell, it lowers

the

bulk resistance of that tissue, which we can image with submillimeter

cell-scale resolution.**

 

By treating an area while watching their progress using tomography, then

moving the needles and repeating as necessary, the engineers have been able

to treat different types of cancerous tissue in laboratory animals. The

treatment takes about 1min. per affected area. **The pulses are so short that

the cells don*t heat up,** added Davalos.

 

Freezing cancer

 

Another technique can claim the same thing: Cryoablation freezes cancer

cells. The downside is that killing the cancer cells with cold sometimes

damages nearby healthy cells, just as heat can.

 

**Our procedure doesn*t affect neighboring cells,** said Davalos. **Our

treatment is also tissue-independent—all cells just behave in this way. All

we have to be able to do is get the needles to the targeted area, and in

just one treatment you are rid of the cancer.**

 

(http://www.eetasia.com/SEARCH/ART/NOKEYWORDS.HTM) A key problem with

traditional cancer treatments, the researchers said, is that oncologists cannot

tell if the cancer cells are dead until a week or so after treatment.

Consequently, if oncologists are not aggressive enough during the treatment,

they can miss some cancer cells, and if they are too aggressive, they can

damage surrounding healthy tissue.

 

**With other procedures, you don*t get immediate feedback. With ours, you

can see how successful the treatment is as you go along,** said Davalos.

 

- R. Colin Johnson

EE Times

 

_http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=cancer+cells_

(http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=cancer+cells)

Starmail - 5. Sep, 23:40