Research of Oscillating Magnetic Field Therapy

U.S. Patent 4,665,898 Inventor: Jonathan L. Costa, Gunter A. Hofmann Date: May 19, 1987 Malignancy Treatment Abstract A body part of an animal afflicted with malignant cells is disposed within a magnetic coil and subjected to a plurality of magnetic field pulses, the pulses having intensities of between about l and about 100 Tesla and characteristic frequencies of between about 5 and about 100 kHz. The pulses magnetic field selectively inactivates and/or destroys malignant cells with relatively little damage to normal tissue. Summary of the Invention ... Herein, it is discovered that high intensity magnetic fields applied in short pulses with moderate frequencies, can be used to selectively destroy or otherwise inactivate malignant cells within tissue of a living animal. Selective inactivation of malignant cells within animal tissue subjected to a pulsed magnetic field is accomplished without noticeable deterioration of gross characteristics of normal tissue. Detailed Description of a Preferred Embodiment It is found that subjecting body parts containing cancerous tissue to a plurality of magnetic field pulses, with characteristic frequencies above about 5 kHz and intensities above about 1 Tesla, will either arrest the growth of tumors or progressively reduce the number of cancerous cells, resulting in remission of tumors... The magnetic field in the coil is produced upon discharge of a bank of capacitors. The capacitor bank is charged from a source, and when a switch is closed... an oscillating current can be generated between the plates of the capacitors. The oscillating current, in turn, generates a pulsed magnetic field which is concentrated within the region bounded by the coil... Immediately subsequent to closing the switch, an intense magnetic field is produced by current flowing in one direction. As the current changes direction, the magnetic field changes polarity... The oscillating current and, hence, the oscillating magnetic field rapidly decreases after about ten oscillations dropping to a few percent of the original magnetic field strength. Herein, magnetic field intensities refer to the intensities of the initial peaks... The method is applicable to practically any type of tissue and is believed applicable for treatment of most types of malignancies... In each session, an animal is exposed to at least 1 and up to 1000 magnetic pulses. Generally a living animal would be subjected to at least ten pulses at each therapy session and up to one hundred pulses. An animal will be subjected to additional sessions until tumor remission is achieved... Malignant cells are more susceptible to destruction and/or inactivation by a pulsed intense electromagnetic field because the field may create eddy currents that are unique to the tumor. These localized eddy currents may cause effects that are deleterious to the viability and/or reproductive capability of the tumor cells. Alternatively, there may be macromolecules unique to malignant cells which are especially magnetically susceptible... Furthermore, treatment with a pulsed magnetic field does far less damage to the natural immune system than does radiation treatment or chemotherapy. Frequently, a patient who is treated extensively with ionizing radiation and/or with chemotherapy will experience an almost complete breakdown of the immune system. Subsequent to treatment, the immune system may take up to a year to recover, particularly with respect to immunity to viral infections. As a result, even if a patient is cured of the malignancy by radiation and/or chemotherapy, he is subject to debilitating disease or even death by infections to which his body would ordinarily have built up immunity. With the magnetic treatment described herein, here has been no evidence of major immune system beak-down. TABLE 2 Evaluation of the Growth of Rat Mammary Tumors Following Multiple Exposures to a Rapidly Varying Magnetic Field                                                               Partial or Complete Response                                           Total                                                        Total Tumors Tumor                              No. of        Interruption                        Responding Type        Tesla/kHz       Tumors    of Growth      Shrinkage     No.    in percent DMBA       5T / 8kHz            8                   2                       6                8        100%  primary  NMU          5T / 8kHz          10                   1                       9              10        100% primary  It can be seen from the above table that the method of the present invention is useful for treating a variety of malignancies, although the response varies according to the type of tumor. Accordingly, the method has general applicability to malignancy treatment. Example 3 Twelve rats having primary DMBA-induced mammary carcinomas were treated daily with a conventional Magneform machine. A primary mammary gland carcinoma induced by a carcinogen, such as DMBA or NMU, is highly virulent, as outlined in substantial detail in P. M. Guillino, et al., Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 54, no. 2, February 1974. It is common for such a tumor in a rat to increase in size by about 10 to 30 fold in about 30 days, and if left untreated almost invariably will ulcerate within about 45 days. Ten of the rats are treated daily with 20 pulses at 5 Tesla and 8 KHz. Their tumor volumes on the 1st and 30th days are listed in with table 3 below: TABLE 3       Tumor Volume (cm3)                           .                           typical size after 30 days     percent Rat   Day 1   Day 30    if left untreated (x20 size)    reduction  l.   1.60    1.95             32.                     94%   2.   1.20    3.65             24.                     85%   3.   2.10    l.20             42.                     97%   4.   1.40    3.81             28.                     86%   5.    .90     .42             18.                     98%   6.   3.00    3.81             60.                     94%   7.    .38     .45              7.6                    94%   8.   2.10    8.18             42.                     8l%   9.   6.79    8.88             13.6                    35%  l0.   1.1      .85             22.                     96%                                                 average 86%  treatment with 20 pulses of 1.2 Tesla at 8 kHz for 30 days   11.   l.6     1.40             32.                     96%  It can be seen from the above table that after thirty days the tumors were either diminished in size, stabilized, or at least controlled relative to untreated tumors... The remaining two rats were treated in an identical manner but at 1/4th the field intensity, i.e., 1.2 Tesla, 8 kHz, 20 pulses. One of these died on day 58 while the tumor size of the other had decreased in size from 1.6 cm3 on day 1 to 1.4 cm3 on day 62. The rats generally appeared to exhibit normal behavior and appetite and did not appear to lose weight. The fact that the rats did not die of infections suggested that the immune systems functioned normally.It can be seen from the above table that after thirty days the tumors were either diminished in size, stabilized, or at least controlled relative to untreated tumors... The remaining two rats were treated in an identical manner but at 1/4th the field intensity, i.e., 1.2 Tesla, 8 kHz, 20 pulses. One of these died on day 58 while the tumor size of the other had decreased in size from 1.6 cm3 on day 1 to 1.4 cm3 on day 62. The rats generally appeared to exhibit normal behavior and appetite and did not appear to lose weight. The fact that the rats did not die of infections suggested that the immune systems functioned normally. Michael's Notes on Patent 4,665,898: This device produces the same type of oscillating magnetic field as does my OMF Generator. The basic design of mine is the same, with a capacitor (charged with high voltage) connected in parallel with a coil by an electrically controlled switch (a xenon flash tube) to produce a decaying oscillating magnetic field. This patents device varies from mine in application only by the test subject being placed inside the coil, whereas mine was used so that the coil rests on the test subject which is effected by the lines of magnetic force emanating from the coil. Field force becomes less and less with more distance from the center of the coil as is indicated by the field force lines separating more. The results of test example 1 is a reduction of live cancer cells (in test tube) of 32% of undifferentiated carcinoma and 29% of embryonic carcinoma after 18 days. This was after 8 pulses of oscillating magnetic field of 5 Tesla at 8 kHz on day 1. The results of test example 2 is 75% and 90% of treated rat mammary tumors (6 of 8 DMBA primary tumors, and 9 of 10 NMU primary tumors) shrunken after 20 pulses daily of OMF at 5 Tesla and 8 kHz for 6 days. The results of test example 3 is an average 86% reduction of tumor size after 30 days (compared to a typical 20 times tumor growth after 30 days). Treatment was with 20 pulses OMF of 5 Tesla at 8 KHZ daily for 30 days. Tumors were induced by injection of the DMBA chemical. The table has columns for the typical 20x size after 30 days and the percent reduction of the treated tumors compared to the 20x size. It also shows the equally positive lower intensity (1.2 Tesla) test results on one tumor with a resultant 96% reduction.