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. A secondary advantage of the procedure of the present invention relative to radiation procedures is that it poses no hazard to the technician performing the process. The high intensity magnetic field exists only within the coil and immediately therearound. Within a very short distance from the coil, the magnetic field drops off dramatically. For example, whereas the field generated by a coil may have an intersity of 5 Tesla in the interior of the coil, within abort 2 meters exterior to the coil, the intensity drops off to below 10 -4 Tesla, a value comparable to the magretic field of the earth. Thus, providing that the teclnician is positioned a reasonable distance from the activated coil, there is substantially no likelihood of cells in the tissues of the technician being affected in a manner similar to the cells of the animal within the coil, and the process may be operated without any special shielding. Of course, the approximate distances increase in proportion to coil dimensions. One exception to this is that, as is the case with microwave apparatus, it should not be operated in the presence of persons wearing certain electrical or electronic prosthetic devices, such as pacemakers. The invention will now be described in greater detail by way of specific examples. EXAMPLE 1 In this experiment, the destructive effects of a high intensity, moderate frequency, pulsed magnetic field were compared for different malignant cells. Cells were grown in confluent monolayers on Petri dishes and were treated briefly with trypsin. Supernatant liquid containing free-floating cells was removed, and test tubes containing aliquots of the free-floating cells were held at room temperature for the duration of the experiment. Tubes of cells were placed into the 4-inch coil of a conventional Magneform machine (Maxwell Laboratories) and given 8 pulses with the machine set to deliver approximately 10 kilojoules of energy at an intensity of 5 Tesla and a frequency of 8 kHz. Trypan blue was added to the test tubes to a final concentration of 0.2%. Aliquots of the cells were counted utilizing a hemocytometer and a light microscope; the total number of cells present per ml and the percentage staining with trypan blue, representing the percentage of killed cells, were calculated. Cells were ennumerated approximately 2 and 18 hours after treatment. A summary of the results is presented in Table 1 below. TABLE 1 EFFECTS OF BRIEF EXPOSURE TO A RAPIDLY VARYING MAGNETIC FIELD ON VARIOUS TYPES OF CELLS IN VITRO                            PERCENT OF DEAD CELLS                               ( STAINED WITH TRYPAN BLUE)                               Nonexposed Cells   Exposed Cells                      Observed After    Observed after CELL TYPE               18 Hours        2 hrs   18 hrs Undifferentiated            1%            3%     32% carcinoma                                               Embryonal                    8%           15%     29% carcinoma                                                 As can be seen from Table 1, the number of dead cancer cells eighteen hours after exposure was significantly higher in the two malignant cell lines compared to normal cells. EXAMPLE 2 In this experiment, albino rats with induced or transplanted tumors were subjected to high intensity, moderate frequency pulsed fields, and the effect of this field on the tumors was examined. The following five groups of female albino rats were prepared: (1) 6 Sprague-Dawley rats bearing no tumors, (2) 7 Sprague-Dawley rats given a single oral feeding of dimethyl-benzanthracene (DMBA) approximately 1 month previously, inducing primary mammary carcinomas in each, (3) 6 Buffalo rats given 3 successive intravenous doses of N-nitrosomethyl urea (NMU) approximately 3 weeks previously, inducing primary mammary carcinomas in each, (4) 6 Buffalo rats, each with an NMU-induced mammary carcinoma transplanted to the popliteal region, (5) 6 Fisher rats, each with a mammary carcinoma of the 13762E/F344 line, transplanted to the popliteal region. If left untreated, all of the types of tumors would generally grow to a size of 20-30 cm3, at which time the tumors would ulcerate. Rats having ulcerated tumors would generally die of secondary causes, such as infection, and in laboratories, rats are generally sacrificed at time of tumor ulceration for humane reasons. The mammary carcinomas in rats bearing primary tumors (groups 2 and 3) were measured in size (length and width measurements with a pair of calipers) for a period of 8 days prior to the start of the experiment. Tumors in rats bearing transplanted tumors were measured for a period of 3 days prior to the experiment. All groups of rats were given food and water ad libitum during the period of examination. The rats were exposed once a day to a series of intense magnetic field pulses of brief duration. During the experimental period, each tumor was measured with calipers daily prior to exposure to the magnetic field. At the conclusion of the treatment of 6 days, the rats were observed for an additional period of time, generally about 16 days, during which tumor sizes were measured daily or every other day until the animals were sacrificed. All of the rats of the control group 1 remained healthy throughout the experiment, exhibiting no adverse reaction to exposure to the magnetic field. A summary of tumor data of rat groups 2-5 is presented in Table 2 below. TABLE 2 Evaluation of the Growth of Rat Mammary Tumors Following Multiple Exposures to a Rapidly Varying Magnetic Field                                                                                                         Total         Tumors with    Tumors        Percent Tumor                               No. of         Interruption      with              Tumors Type            Tesla/kHz       Tumors       of Growth      Shrinkage     Shrunken DMBA          5T / 8kHz            8                    2                   6                  75%  primary                                                                                                                          NMU            5T / 8kHz           10                   1                    9                  90% primary                                                                                                                          13762E/F344    5T/8kHz             4                    1                   3                  75% Trans- planted                                                                                                                          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 table 3 below. It can be seen from the below table that after thirty days the tumors were either diminished in size, stabilized, or at least controlled relative to untreated tumors... The eleventh rat was treated in an identical manner but at 1/4th the field intensity, i.e., 1.2 Tesla, 8 kHz, 20 pulses. Its tumor 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. TABLE 3       Tumor Volume (cm3)                           percent Rat   Day 1   Day 30    change  l.   1.60    1.95      + 22%  2.   1.20    3.65      +204%  3.   2.10    l.20      - 43%       4.   1.40    3.81      +172%   5.    .90     .42      - 53%   6.   3.00    3.81      + 27%   7.    .38     .45      + 18%   8.   2.10    8.18      +290%  9.   6.79    8.88      + 24%  l0.   1.1      .85      - 23%                                             average +64%  20 pulses daily of 1.2 Tesla at 8 kHz     11.   l.6     1.40       -12%  Our Notes about Patent 4,665,898: On day 30, on average, the tumors hadn't even doubled in size (+100%), whereas if left untreated they would of averaged 20 times the original size. This treatment didn't totally kill the tumors but keep in mind that this was a very fast growing type of tumor that the treatments basically kept from growing at al. Probably with less active types of tumors this treatment would be successful at killing them. 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%, 90%, and 75% of treated rat mammary 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 +64% increase of tumor size after 30 days (compared to a typical 20 times (+2000%) 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 also shows the equally positive lower intensity (1.2 Tesla) test results on one tumor with a resultant 12% reduction.