EPFX "Biofeedback" Machines

The devil, as they say, is in the details. What we need in oncology is not a new way to cook the cancer cells--we've got that, thanks much, in chemotherapy, RF ablation, radiation treatment, and other technologies.
The issue is targeting. How do you treat only the cancer cells while avoiding the rest of the body? "Inject the tumor with the nanoparticles" is the trivial answer, and that's helpful to a point. But people don't die of individual tumors, and that's not why we give them chemotherapy. The problem is that frequently cancer is a systemic disease.
We know tumor cells circulate in the bloodstream; there are FDA tests to measure this.
So, Mr. Kanzius, can you design for us a system that selectively targets only the cancer cells, completely sparing the rest of the organism?

You get a sense of this problem in the name of the prostate cancer screening molecule: PSA stands for prostate cancer specific antigen. The name reflects the hope that the relevant scientists actually discovered the specific molecule that marks prostate cancer. As we know, there are huge specificity (false-positive) problems with PSA testing.
The exciting developments in cancer treatment, then, are in targeting. Rituximab is a huge success because it is a CD20 monoclonal--selectively targets lymphoma cells. Herceptin--terrific drug. Monoclonal. Targets a protein on the outside of some breast cancer cells. Gleevec--revolutionized the treatment of leukemia, and turned a disease with a 30% cure rate after stem cell transplant to one with a 97% cure rate after taking some pills. Huge. Our most successful drugs are the ones that have the best risk-benefit profile. All drugs are effective at high enough doses; problem is they also get really toxic at highest doses.

I propose, therefore, that the Kanzius Machine is an interesting side note on the main path of oncology. While it has captured the imagination of the press and public, it is a hammer in search of a nail. Can these nanoparticles be conjugated to a monoclonal? What target will the monoclonal select? These are the real unanswered questions in medical oncology, though we continue to make progress on them.