Research Institutions & Projects

Dr. David A. Geller, M.D.

Dr. David Geller is the Richard L. Simmons Professor of Surgery and the Co-Director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which is one of the largest liver cancer centers in the United States. They see over 500 new liver cancer patients each year. Dr. Geller has had over a decade of experience operating on cancer patients from northwestern Pennsylvania, which led to his original meeting with John Kanzius in 2004.

Scope of Work:

In 2010, Dr. David Geller is the recipient of a two-year, $425,000 grant from the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation. The goal of Dr. Geller’s project is to use the machine invented by the late John Kanzius to thermally ablate (destroy) inoperable liver cancer in a non-invasive manner. Dr. Geller has previously used gold nanoparticles to ablate liver cancer cells in vitro (Petri dishes) and by direct injection in rodent models of liver cancer.

The grant from the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation has allowed Dr. Geller to further study the mechanisms of cellular death caused by radio wave heating of the gold nanoparticles, as well as develop antibody-labeled gold nanoparticles for the selective targeting of liver cancer in vivo (within the living organism). The ultimate goal is to develop a clinically useful strategy for non-invasive radio-wave thermal ablation of liver cancer in patients.

More than 20,000 patients per year develop primary liver cancer (known as hepatocellular carcinoma, or HCC) in the United States. An additional 80,000 patients each year in the United States develop colorectal cancer which branches out to the liver; the vast majority of these patients (greater than 75%) are inoperable at diagnosis.

In addition to his practice being completely focused on liver cancer, Dr. Geller states that human liver cancer is ideal for experimental work with the Kanzius non-invasive radio wave cancer treatment for several reasons:

The liver is the largest solid organ in the human body and therefore relatively easy to target;
Most liver cancer (greater than 75%) is inoperable upon initial diagnosis; and
The standard treatment for inoperable primary liver cancer would lend itself well to the addition of antibody-tagged gold nanoparticles

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