Another Example of American Exceptionalism

Floor Speech

Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a truly extraordinary and exceptional American, a man by the name of John Kanzius, and to recognize a major milestone in John's dream to find a better way to treat cancer: that is the completion of the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation's mission.

When I first came to Washington, I was absolutely amazed by the number of academicians, researchers, thinkers, and intellectuals that work and reside in our Nation's Capitol. You know, you listen to these people and you say, my goodness, we are so blessed, as a country, to have this great wealth of knowledge and the sheer brain power, the collection of brain power around here is incredible.

Then you learn about something even more incredible and even more remarkable, and it happens right in your own home district and in a town that you represent. And you say, wait a minute. In Erie, Pennsylvania, a guy named John Kanzius recognized that there had to be a better way to treat cancer.

Now, John is truly an inspiration, not just to me and to his family, but to the entire country and, especially, to the cancer community.

Let me tell you a little bit about John. John was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1944. John made a living as a radio and TV engineer, and was a onetime station owner.

When he retired, John and his wife, Marianne, they had already completed their successful professional life and had raised two adult children. They headed to Florida like a lot of Americans do to enjoy their retirement. But that is not what was in store for John.

In 2002, John was diagnosed with terminal leukemia and had undergone countless treatments of toxic chemotherapy. And this is the worst kind of luck that put John on a new path, and a miraculous path, because it gave John the idea that maybe you could use radio waves to kill cancer cells.

Now, while John didn't have a medical background, he did understand radio waves. And when he was diagnosed with terminal leukemia in 2002, his knowledge of the deficiencies in modern cancer treatment became firsthand.

But it wasn't John's sickness that motivated him. It was the sad and helpless eyes of all those children he would see in the cancer ward when he went in for his chemo and he would see these kids sitting there, their hands bandaged up, their frail bodies, knowing that they couldn't go outside and play the way other children did.

He looked at that and said, there has got to be a better way to treat this horrible disease. And that is what motivated him.

Now, I want you to think about something, because John Kanzius--and anybody who has been through this--my own sister died of pancreatic cancer--as you go through that, as the person, whether it happens to you or somebody in your family, you start to feel what they are going through.

John couldn't sleep at night. And rather than wake Marianne up, you know what he decided to do?

One morning, at 2 a.m. he got up and he went downstairs. So he grabbed some copper wire, some boxes, some antennas, and Marianne's pie pans, and he starts to build a machine.

This is just an average, everyday guy who just got it. He understood that technology. Now, he is weak and weary from his own cancer, but John continued to work. By the spring of 2004, John was feeling a little better and he started to get the word out about his discovery and he started to raise money for more expansive research.

Could radio waves be the key to a nontoxic, noninvasive way to treatment?

If one could find a way to direct metal to cancer cells, could radio waves be the answer to the prayers of countless people, young and old, suffering health failure and an uncertain future on account of this cancer?

Now, confronted with his own battle and the suffering of so many young people, John Kanzius' can-do attitude kicked in, and he set out to demonstrate that radio waves, indeed, could kill cancer cells without harming any other tissue. No collateral damage. And this endeavor became the mission of the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Now, in the midst of undergoing dozens of rounds of toxic chemotherapy, he encountered so many sick young people facing a similar ordeal. The cancer and the chemo were stealing these children's health, and John was tormented by the reality that was reflected in their faces. He just knew that there had to be a better way, and he went about it.

Last month, on June 30, the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation announced that the organization would be closing its doors, after raising more than $15 million in donations, a day that John Kanzius had only dreamed about.

And why?

Because the Kanzius research team is now entering into the next phase by submitting up an application to the FDA to initiate human trials to test the possibility of John's vision of curing and treating cancer.

The Kanzius Foundation has funded all the research necessary for the team to demonstrate how the technology works and begin the first phases of these trials, which will target pancreatic and liver cancers, two of the particularly deadly forms of cancer. If successful, the treatment will be a game-changer for so many of these people with these two types of cancer.

Now, while John is not around to see the culmination of his life work because he passed away in 2009 at the age of 64, I don't only trust, I know that John is seeing what is going on today. And I am so happy to be here and be able to talk about the Kanzius Research Center.

Some of the people are in the gallery actually: my good friend, Mark Neidig, who is the executive director; board president, Maryann Yochim; and D.C. board member, Debra Thornton, to name a few. Again, an exceptional American.

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