Dr. Weeks’ Comment: In medicine, if the solution to the problem is not profitable, then there is no problem! Until Big Pharma found a way to make money killing cancer STEM cells (not just the less dangerous cancer TUMOR cells) no one was interested in the science claiming that cancer STEM cells (the only cancer cells which metastasize!) were dangerous. Now that funding has arrived, your oncologist will finally understand what you are asking him when you ask: “What will you proposed chemo and radiation therapy do to my cancer stem cells?”
“Cancer stem cells are thought to be the originators of common tumour cells, and lead to cancer’s re-growth after chemotherapy. It is thought by destroying cancer stem cells will prolong survival, without relapse.”
ImmunoCellular receives notice of allowance for cancer stem cell treatment patent
February 2, 2012 at 09:19:01 EST by Proactive Investors
ImmunoCellular Therapeutics (OTC:IMUC) said Wednesday it has received a “notice of allowance” from the U.S. Patent and Trademark office for its patent relating to the targeting of cancer stem cells in the treatment of patients with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
The patent, called “Cancer Stem Cell Antigen Vaccines and Methods”, covers various methods of using dendritic cells combined with antigens derived from glioblastoma cancer stem cells.
“The notice of allowance for this patent provides support for our strong intellectual property protection that we are building in the treatment of cancer by targeting cancer stem cells,” ImmunoCellular’s chief scientific officer John Yu said in a statement.
“We continue to actively develop our cancer stem cell platform as we believe it has significant potential in the treatment of cancer.”
ICT-107, the company’s lead product candidate, is a dendritic cell-based vaccine that works by activating a patient’s immune system against specific tumour associated antigens for glioblastoma multiforme.
This is done by extracting dendritic cells from a patient, loading them with the tumour-related antigens, and re-injecting them back into the patient’s body to trigger an immune response against cancer cells exhibiting these antigens.
Rather than simply targeting a single tumour-specific antigen, ImmunoCellular’s vaccine pursues many different antigens found on cancer stem cells.
Cancer stem cells are thought to be the originators of common tumour cells, and lead to cancer’s re-growth after chemotherapy. It is thought by destroying cancer stem cells will prolong survival, without relapse.