From MF Monitor

Cancer vaccine developed by Perseus PCI offers breakthrough, non-toxic treatment for cancer patients using the body’s own cells to attack tumors and turn off the engine of cancer inside the body, claims Dr. Thomas Wagner, co-founder of Perseus PCI.

Despite billions of dollars spent, thousands of clinical trials conducted and hundreds of new pharmaceutical drugs launched, the 50+ year war on cancer has resulted in few victories, say a group of biomedical scientists at Perseus PCI, who intend to change it with recent approval of an alternative cancer treatment, a therapeutic vaccine, as part of a research program in the Cayman Islands.

Increasingly aggressive regimens of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery have barely changed the death rates for the most common cancers and cause debilitating side effects that often cause death, they said.

A breakthrough from the personalized immunotherapy treatment licensed by Perseus PCI offers new hope to cancer sufferers by teaching the immune system to destroy the engine of cancer inside the body, says Dr. Thomas Wagner.

“This advanced immunotherapy is as far removed from what’s on a hospital’s pharmacy shelves as medicines can get,” says Dr. Wagner. “We are deconstructing and decoding the tumor, and sending the patient’s own T-cells to destroy the systems that supported its spread.”

Dr. Wagner’s work in genetic medicine directed his research to personalized immunotherapy in the early 1990s. “We learned then that cancer starts in the body 10 times a day, at least, but 99 percent of them are automatically stopped by natural processes. I decided it made a great deal more sense to figure out the mechanisms in the body that stop the cancer and tweak them rather than bomb them with chemotherapy,” he explains.

Toxic, debilitating and ineffective–according to a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the overall contribution of chemotherapy to five-year survival in adult cancer patients is estimated at just 2.1 percent, he stated.

The Perseus method inserts the entire molecular content of the patient’s cancerous tumor cells into dendritic cells (special cells that help the immune system recognize cancer). This triggers a massive response by the immune system against that specific type of cancer cell, creating a lifetime immunity to the disease. With immunotherapy, patients experience none of the devastating side effects associated with chemotherapy such as fatigue, hair loss and memory loss.

“Ideally we want to vaccinate at the earliest stages of cancer because we believe we might actually cure the patient’s disease,” asserts Dr. Wagner. “Our research in the U.S. suggests we can extend the late-stage cancer patient’s quality of life and life expectancy, but we can go further.”

The immunotherapy vaccine, now available at the Perseus clinic in the Cayman Islands, has gone through Phases I and II clinical trials in the U.S. for treatment of advanced stage melanoma, renal cell carcinoma and neuroblastoma. Average life expectancy for patients in this category was estimated at three to five months; life span post immunotherapy averaged three years.

Working with a small section of the patient’s solid tumor, and a vial of blood drawn at the first visit, the vaccine is produced in three days, personalized to the patient’s cells. Initial administration of the vaccine takes place on the third day, followed by three subsequent visits at one-month intervals. The only side effects are a low-grade fever.

The cost, which includes preparation and administration of the personalized cancer vaccine, airfare and hotel stays for all four visits, ranges up to $95,000. “Cancer patients frequently spend that much out of pocket for traditional treatments that deplete their resources and severely affect their quality of life,” defends Dr. Wagner.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.microfinancemonitor.com/2013/10/30/cancer-vaccine-researchers-claim-breakthrough/