A cure for cancer?

I reported on a potential cancer cure for our January 12 issue. Here is the report:

A maverick Bangalore scientist is ready to ship out the first 60 units of a cancer treatment device he has been perfecting over the last 20 years.

Cytotron machines, designed and developed by Dr Rajah Vijay Kumar (44), are going to hospitals across the world, besides to cities in India, through this year, starting April.

The device uses what he describes as "a hitherto unexplored method of altering cell dynamics", and offers new hope for cancer patients.

Vijay Kumar's work defies conventional oncology, which believes cancers can be treated only with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Modern clinical practice is convinced cancer can only be managed, not cured.

Terror analogy: "The problem is caused by rogue cells," Vijay Kumar told MiD DAY in the course of a two-hour interview at his research centre on Bangalore's outskirts. "And these cells are extremely smart."

Vijay Kumar gives the terrorist analogy to describe how cancer strikes: misguided cells infiltrate and penetrate vital organs, and cause severe destruction.

The electronics and communications engineer has spent over two decades developing a machine that uses mild radio waves, similar to those used by FM radio and mobile phones, to correct malfunctioning cells and restore patients to health.

But not everyone is convinced he has a breakthrough on his hands. Dr M S Belliappa, consultant surgical oncologist, Apollo Hospital, said, "Cancer is a group of more than 100 different diseases characterised by the uncontrolled, abnormal growth of cells. These new inventions just relieve you of pain and don't really do anything more."

But patients are ready to vouch for the effectiveness of Cytotron.

Success story: Dr Parthasarathy Rengarajan (57), an ENT surgeon fom Mettur in Tamil Nadu, was diagnosed with brain cancer four years ago. He was tired of conventional treatment, and approached Vijay Kumar. "Within a week, I was feeling better," he said.

Dr Rengarajan was given Cytotron treatment and monitored for six months. He now goes for MRI scans once in three months and believes his tumour is benign. Three other patients MiD DAY spoke to had encouraging, grateful things to say about Cytotron. (See panel at the bottom of this page).

Five-year milestone: Vijay Kumar is aware the medical establishment will have hard questions, but is convinced he is on the right track. "We've seen patients survive deadly tumours for four years," he said. "Once we cross the five-year mark, we can declare it a potential cure."

Vijay Kumar has also had stupendous success treating osteo-arthritis, a disease that affects the bones and makes mobility difficult.

Medical textbooks say cartilage tissue, or what the doctors call "a terminally differentiated cell type", can't re-grow, but his centre has treated at least 300 osteo-arthritis patients who can now walk without pain.

Cytotron resembles an MRI machine, and the Centre for Advanced Research at K R Puram, where Vijay Kumar works from, runs three units. MRI machines use magnetic waves to detect abnormalities, and are widely used as a diagnostic tool.

MRI calibration

"We first calibrate the proton density of the therapeutic radio waves with the help of a basic MRI scanner," said Vijay Kumar. Once the calculations are done, customised radio waves are beamed on to the affected area.

"If a patient has two tumours, the frequency and modulation are calibrated separately for each," he explained.

A session lasts an hour, when the patient lies down and receives the radio waves under the influence of a specific magnetic field.

Typically, 28 daily sessions make up a cycle of treatment. The cycle is repeated after a review, if the doctors feel the patient needs continued treatment.

Himalayan meeting: Dr Ranjit, an ex-Air Vice Marshal who graduated in medicine from Pune, plans and administers the therapy.

"Dr Vijay Kumar is an old friend, and we met at an altitude of 30,000 feet," he said. The friends share a passion for mountaineering, and were fellow-travellers on an aircraft somewhere above the Himalayas.

Dr B S Ajai Kumar, consultant radiation oncologist and chairman of Bangalore Institute of Oncology, said, "Cytotron could be a path-breaking technology but we don't exactly know if the malignant tumour is completely destroyed. Though conventional treatments are painful, they are effective. These days people come up with innovative ways to treat health problems, but they have side-effects."

The use of radio frequency to destroy tumours is not new. Radio frequency ablation (RFA), for instance, is used to destroy liver and lung tumours, and it is minimally invasive.

"Conventional radiotherapy uses ionising radiation at the high frequency end of the electromagnetic spectrum, and can cause collateral damage," Vijay Kumar said.

Cytotron, on the other hand, uses a more benign, non-ionising approach, and is said to have no side effect except fatigue. It does not require cutting of the body.

The Institutional Review Board and the Institution Ethical Committee have allowed the centre to conduct clinical trials only on terminally ill cancer patients.

"As of today, 62.2 per cent of terminally ill cancer patients treated are still alive, and 98 per cent have enjoyed a better quality of life," said Vijay Kumar. The centre has treated 130 cancer patients so far, all for free.

Dr Somashekar, consultant surgical oncologist, Manipal Hospital, sees only a limited role for Cytotron.

"There aren't many alternative therapies for cancer. Cytotron can be helpful in the initial stages but it can't help in serious cases. Radiation and chemotherapy are the only way to treat cancer at the moment. I'm not saying Cytotron is a failure; it can only be supportive," he said.

Scalene Cybernetics, which is funding the Cytotron efforts and of which Vijay Kumar is chairman, can currently produce 100 units a year.

Vijay Kumar's engineering solution to a medical problem brings promise to patients living out a dire prognosis.

The mild-mannered inventor believes word is spreading, and will spread faster once the 60 machines start showing results. Cytotron machines are going to hospitals in Europe, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Singapore this year.

(Additional reporting by Lavanya Srinivasan)

I had two lumps in my breast... Once treatment began, a lump shrank and became benign
Shashikala(45), who was diagnosed with cancer seven months ago

I feel fine, except for some weakness
Rashmi Priya (49), battling lung cancer, and under Cytotron treatment for a week

His left side was paralysed. He can now use his left hand
Chandrika, mother of Rohan Ganesh (4), brain cancer patient from Mysore


Indian Medical Association take

Dr Vishi Shanmuganathan, secretary of the Bangalore chapter of Indian Medical Association, told MiD DAY, "I've never heard about Cytotron... this is the first time I'm hearing about it. Without knowing details of how it works, I can't say much." He also said it was difficult to say whether cancer could be cured. "Even when people are undergoing treatment, it spreads. Cancer can be treated temporarily but there are chances it will come back somewhere else if not in the same place."


Who's Rajah Vijay Kumar?

Vijay Kumar graduated in electronics engineering from Bangalore University. In 1991, the University of Belfast awarded him a doctor of science degree in medical engineering. Vijay Kumar loves the arts, especially theatre. He acted as Mysore warrior-king Tipu Sultan's son in a school play, and is playing a serial killer in the Kannada film Ninagaagi Kaadiruve (I Wait for You), due for release in a month.

Vijay Kumar's success hasn't come easy. When he started independent research as a 24-year-old scientist, his peers thought he was crazy.

He first hypothesized he could heal broken bones with radio waves, but since there was no way he could conduct trials on real patients, he broke his leg on a crowbar.

"I could achieve total consolidation of the fractured bone in 15 days," he said. "Sometimes we have to experiment on ourselves to prove a point."

'Total consolidation' is a doctorly way of saying he was healed completely.

His prototype treated 12 other patients with confirmed non-healing fractures during 1987-88, and he presented the results at the Karnataka Orthopaedic Association.

That episode puts him in the league of doctors such as Dr Richard Bernstein, who have turned conventional medical wisdom on its head by experimenting on themselves. After years of trial and error, Dr Bernstein has arrived at a low-carb protocol, endorsed by many patients but considered controversial by mainstream doctors, for the treatment of diabetes.

iPod Touch: A review

Some describe the iPod Touch as an iPhone without the phone. That is a pretty accurate description of the smart steel-and-black device. It also lacks a camera, one of the attractions of the iPhone.

Yet, the iPod Touch is a very advanced mp3 player. It is Wi-fi enabled, which means you can check out websites on it. You can buy stuff online. And then it has dozens of useful applications that you wouldn't find on less expensive mp3 players, such as on those made by Transcend or Creative, or even on the lower-priced iPod Nano.

Wireless Internet capability must be the biggest plus of the Touch, especially since it gives you ready access to the App Store, where you can download hundreds of useful and quirky applications. The instrument Apple gave us to test had some games, including one with James Bond as the theme, and last week, Wired magazine gave out its recommendations of the top 10 applications on offer at the App Store.

In short, what you can do with the applications on your iPhone, you can with your iPod Touch. You can turn your music player into a flute, play clever games, and browse Google Earth to find addresses. Most of these applications you can buy for between one and three dollars. And if you are curious about useless applications, there's one being promoted on their site right now. It's called iFart, and is described as 'a fart machine for all ages'!

When it comes to listening to music, the difference between a Nano and a Touch is that the latter has a built-in speaker, which means you can place it on your table and listen to it without earphones. As far as sound goes, the Touch is in the same league as the other Apple products, which is another way of saying it can beat its rivals with ease.

Apple's proprietary multi-touch technology is what makes the Touch a music player that's fit for snobs, but if you have a big appetite for stored music, you should choose the iPod Classic, which can keep 160 GB on a similar-sized instrument. If you settle for the Classic, you can't show off those impressive touch applications to your friends.

You can buy the iPod Touch for Rs 14,400 for 8 GB and Rs 21,400 for 16 GB. Let's put it this way: the iPod Touch is the rich man's mp3 player, and the poor man's iPhone.

Lessons from a crisis

Ripples of the US recession are touching distant shores. Corporate India, which just five years ago was dying to fully hitch itself to the American economy, is now relieved it wasn't. It is apparent the Indian economy has managed not to collapse in these hard times only because it wasn't hitched to that once powerful and now broken wagon.

Those affected by the American stock market madness are asking uncomfortable questions. Why were pension funds invested in risky stocks and mutual funds? The American magazines are full of stories about pensioners having to return to work because they have nothing left to live on. Fortunately, India has escaped that tragedy.

In India, traditionally, provident fund, insurance and pension money remained safe from speculative investment. The people being thanked for India's relative economic security are conservative policy makers and strict RBI governors.

Here at least, we seems to be suddenly waking up to the idea that American excess isn't the way to go. The undoing of the American auto industry, for instance, is rightly being attributed its disregard for fuel efficiency. The Big Three, as Chrysler, General Motors and Ford are called, kept making fuel guzzlers, and it looks like they have now lost their battle to Japanese car makers who understand oil must be used frugally. In India, fuel efficiency has always been a concern, and although we do see big cars on our roads, automakers don't try to peddle notoriously fuel-inefficient monster cars such as the Hummer.

Paul Krugman, Nobel-winning economist and newspaper columnist, compares the American crisis to the dark days of the 1930s. That was the time of the Great Depression, when that country was gripped by a run on banks, loss of jobs, and soaring crime.

But we haven't seen such scenes this time around, or have we? "Instead of mobs in the streets… it was mobs in cyberspace clicking on mouses," said Krugman, in a Newsweek interview.

While workers lose jobs and investors go broke, the guys in the middle, the investment bankers who gave 'expert' advice, have collected their bonuses and retired to their penthouses and private islands… That's what a shattered America is saying. Obama is inheriting a severely injured economy, and not many believe he can make it fly in a hurry.

This is no time to gloat, as many at the lowest rungs of the employment ladder in India are losing their jobs, but the world may yet learn some lessons from conservative, old unfashioned India: Don't spend more than you earn. Don't borrow, but if you must, do it wisely. Don't gamble with your life savings and pension funds. And the hardest lesson: Don't trust the private sector for everything.