Any actual medical use is still a long way off and far from assured, but we may have seen a major conceptual breakthrough in cancer treatment. Certainly many cancer researchers think we have, and they’re excited about the possibilities. The basic idea, the brainwave of a businessman, radio technician and cancer patient named John Kanzius, is simple: use radio waves and small metal particles (carried into the cancer cells by specially-modified antibodies) to cook cancer while leaving normal cells alone. It’s already been used to kill small tumors in animals; if they can find ways to target cancer cells that don’t rely on doctors knowing the cells are there (and thus to ensure they get all the places where cancers metastasize), they should be off to the races.
