Individualized Immune Therapy

Cancer cells are genetically unstable. At time of diagnosis, tumors consist of billions of cells and are biologically heterogeneous, i.e., the tumors contain cells with different biological properties.

For example, some cells are sensitive to a chemotherapeutic drug and other cells are not. Consequently, treatment with chemotherapy kills sensitive tumor cells while the resistant cells proliferate. The major cause of death from cancer is not due to primary neoplasms, but to the spread of cancer cells to distant organs where they grow to establish metastases.

The methodology developed by Vaccinogen meets this demanding goal.

Metastases are also biologically heterogeneous and present the major obstacle to therapy. The biological heterogeneity of neoplasms explains why generalized therapy of cancer has not been successful and recommends a new approach to therapy, i.e., individualized immune therapy. Targeting tumor cells and stromal cells by immune cells requires that immune cells be activated against the tumor cells in metastases. Recognizing the heterogeneity of cancer and devising solutions from that premise has been supported in major medical journals for the last 20 years and was more recently acknowledged in the Wall Street Journal (February 26, 2008).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120399752255692957.html?mod=health_home_stories

To achieve this goal, one must activate specific immune cells with specific antigens present on the specific target cells. The methodology developed by Vaccinogen meets this demanding goal.

- I. J. Fidler, Ph.D.
Recipient of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research, 1999