A cancer research foundation will give away more than $1 million to cancer-treatment facilities in Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania.
An Erie County judge and the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office have approved plans to distribute the remainder of the Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation's assets.
The money will fund human trials of a noninvasive cancer treatment that uses radio waves to destroy cancerous cells.
More than $10 million had been donated to the Erie-based nonprofit for research using the Kanzius Noninvasive Radiowave Cancer Device, according to the Erie Times-News. The Erie-based foundation closed in 2014.
Baylor College of Medicine in Texas and Florida's Lee Memorial Health System Foundation will both receive $250,000. The rest will be donated to the Erie Community Foundation and distributed to the nearby Regional Cancer Center and other institutions qualified for human trials.
"More of the money is going to Erie because this was an Erie-based foundation. It started here," said Maryann Yochim, president of the foundation's board of directors. "These funds are specifically to go for patient care, to assist the patient during the treatment and beyond."
The foundation closed last June after officials said it had funded all the research on the device necessary to test it on humans. A lead researcher said he expects an announcement later this week regarding the next phase of the device's development.
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If the Food and Drug Administration does not permit human trials or the device doesn't reach the next stage of development in the next five years, the money will go to cancer research.
