REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, By: Fira Nursya’bani

The development of research on cancer treatment device conducted by scientist Warsito Purwo Taruno must be stopped by the government through Health Research and Development Agency, Ministry of Health. According to Warsito, the license revocation was done because his research was considered not scientifically-based.

Warsito Purwo Taruno was the 8th recipient of BJ Habibie Technology Award (BJHTA). This award was given to Warsito because of the finding of Electrical Capacitance Tomography Volume (ECTV) for detecting brain and breast cancer. "This device utilizes wasted energy," said Warsito to Republika.

Warsito admitted his technology development was still considered controversial in medical world because the device uses static wave. While, other development of technologies generally use primary wave. According to him, the static wave turned out to have a pretty good benefits.

He argued, this waveform contains a lot of information that can be extracted. Then the information can be digitized into the computer. In general, he added, the development of technology with primary wave will require enormous energy, ie up to 200 volts. Meanwhile, static wave only requires low energy.

The discovery of this technology has been through a long process and the finding have yielded results around 78 percent. "It means, 78 percent of users of the device managed to survive from brain or breast cancer," he added.

One derivative of ECTV technology is an application for cancer therapy, namely Electro-Capacitive Cancer Therapy (ECCT). This application has been registered in 2012. He explained, ECCT and ECTV are similar to radiotherapy for treatment or CT scan with ionizing electromagnetic waves. The difference, he added, ECVT and ECCT utilize basic characteristic of biophysical of cells and tissues.

ECVT and ECCT obviously give great hope for cancer therapy based on non-radiative energy waves. For instance, cancer in the brain stem may still be 'cleaned' by ECCT. He recognized that ECVT and ECCT have no references in the world. This was because both technologies were born in Indonesia and were the first in the world.

Read: Netizens create online petition to support Warsito

For him, Health Research and Development Agency was a 'Father' in his research. Because of the government agency, Warsito could begin the research and generate the finding. Knowing the government has issued license revocation on his study, Warsito was surprised. "I was like children who was expelled by his father," he continued.

Related to it, Minister of Health conveyed explanation through Secretary General, Untung Suseno Sutarjo. Untung said license revocation of Warsito’s research has been studied in depth by Ministry of Health.

He stated that Warsito was always invited to the Ministry of Health to ask for clarification and confirmation of the license revocation. "We've invited him many times to discuss his research, but he never came," said Untung.

The license revocation was stated in the letter of Ministry of Health in number HK.06.01/I/2444/2015 signed by Secretary General of Ministry of Health on 20th November 2015.

The letter explained that ECTV and ECCT owned by Warsito did not meet research procedure as stated in the memorandum of understanding (MoU). Earlier, Health Research and Development Agency has signed a MoU with PT Edward Technology on ECTV and ECCT research. Results of the research was expected to guarantee safety and usefulness when it was applied to people.

Under the agreement, activities of PT Edward Technology has been considered incompatible with stages of research process that has been set by Ministry of Health. In addition, the ‘cancer research clinic' owned by PT Edward Technology and Warsito also did not appropriate, as stated in Decree No. 9 of 2014 about the clinic and its use. The clinic did not meet the standards and operating permit.

At the decree, clinic is a health care facility that hold personal health services and provide basic/specialist medical care. Based on the type of service, clinic is divided into pratama clinic and primary clinic. Pratama clinic is clinic that provide basic medical services either general or specific. While, primary clinic provide specialist medical care or specialist services.

Moreover, former Chairman of Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI), dr. Zaenal Abidin, said Warsito was an inventor, not a doctor. Therefore, Warsito could not accept any patients. "Warsito was not a doctor, so that he was not allowed to have patients and use his invention to the patients. Only doctors and dentists who are allowed to have patients and have authority to give treatment and therapy," he explained, Wednesday (2/12).

According to him, if Warsito invented cancer-fighting device, the device should be submitted to doctors. Therefore, doctors are allowed to use the device to be applied to the patients. "Inventors of USG and CT Scan did not use the device to the patient because they do not have the right to apply it. They handed the device to be used by authorized doctors in treating patients," said Zaenal.

Nevertheless, more netizens support Warsito rather than the government. A netizen, named Tri Sunaryanto from Yogyakarta, even created an online petition at change.org to provide support to Warsito. The petition was addressed to President Joko Widodo, Ministry of Research, and Ministry of Health. In the petition that was made on Wednesday (2/12), he wrote support for the inventor and scientist for making cancer treatment device in Indonesia.

In the online petition, an open letter written by Warsito in his Facebook account regarding the license revocation of the research, was also attached. Warsito also wrote about ECTV and ECCT technology which were developed based on mathematical and  physics principles

Furthermore, Warsito confirmed that his research on ECCT for treatment of cancer has been proven in credible research institutions. He explained, in 2015, dr. Sahudi from Faculty of Medicine, Airlangga University has conducted research and discovered mechanism of cell death by ECCT. The result revealed that the device was scientifically can kill cancer cells.

Additionally, Warsito said, Head of Primate Studies in Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB), Diah Iskandriati, has also conducted similar research. Her research showed that ECCT therapy was considered effective in reducing proliferation level of breast cancer cells in culture settings. This was also to reduce potential of dense breast tumors in animals. "The two research institutions have credibility that are no doubt," Warsito added.

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