The instrument can be used to treat numerous benign skin conditions and certain tumors. And it offers a long-awaited cure for 12 million people in 88 countries who suffer from an endemic tropical disease that causes persistent skin lesions. The device, carried down the long road from lab bench to doctor's office by a small Arizona company called Thermosurgery Technologies Inc., is based on technology developed decades ago by Los Alamos National Laboratory. The radio frequency device delivers precisely controlled, localized heat to a small area of tissue.
Malignant cells are typically more sensitive to slightly elevated temperatures.
Application of heat close to the range of a very high fever destroys malignant cells, but allows healthy surrounding cells to regenerate. The technology provides an effective way to apply heat only to diseased tissues and precisely control the temperature in the treated areas. Los Alamos researchers patented a technique for radio frequency heating of tumor tissue in 1977. Doss created computer software that modeled electric and thermal fields in tissue. With his colleagues Bill McCabe, Tom Boyd and Joe Albillar, Doss designed electrodes to deliver the radio frequency current.