Could Wheat Germ Hold the Key to Supercharging Immunotherapy? New Research Hopes to Find Out

An ongoing clinical trial at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at UC Davis seeks to find out whether fermented wheat germ could help cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy have better outcomes and live full lives, or even beat cancer. 

This pioneering study is being conducted by Joseph Tuscano, an oncologist specializing in blood cancers like multiple myeloma, leukemia and lymphoma. This research is being funded by the family of a patient who succumbed to cancer but had previously shown remarkable improvement after using fermented wheat germ to supplement his immunotherapy. The Veterans Administration is also funding the study. 

The use of fermented wheat germ in the treatment of cancer isn’t entirely new. Back in the 1990s, Mate Hidvegi, a Hungarian chemist, used an extract from fermented wheat germ to treat patients with cancer in Hungary. 

While Tuscano was treating Norman deLeuze, he learned that his patient was traveling around the world in search of alternative remedies that could help him fight the mantle cell lymphoma he had been diagnosed with. This type of blood cancer is very deadly and deLeuze had concerns about the toxicity associated with conventional cancer treatments. 

When deLeuze returned to Tuscana for further treatment, the oncologist was surprised to find that the lymphoma had shrunk to almost undetectable levels. He asked deLeuze what he had been using and the patient revealed that he had accessed an extract of fermented wheat germ from Hungary. This piqued the interest of Tuscana and started him off researching how this product can help cancer patients currently undergoing immunotherapy. 

Tuscana discovered there was hardly any research on alternative cancer therapies and it was hard to secure funding for such research since the area of interest wasn’t in mainstream medicine. deLeuze started helping to mobilize funding for the study. Unfortunately, the patient went into remission unexpectedly and died. He had, however, outlived the expected survival time for people with the cancer type he had been battling. 

deLeuze’s family helped to generate more than a million dollars towards the fermented wheat germ study. 

Preclinical research undertaken by Tuscana on animal subjects shows the extract could kill melanoma, breast, lung, kidney and bladder cancer cells in patients receiving checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies. Tuscana hopes to identify the exact compounds within the extract which attain these beneficial effects. Given that the extract contains thousands of peptides and proteins, it is important to isolate the specific active ingredients helpful in fighting tumors. 

Currently, the researchers are enrolling patients to take part in the clinical trial. The team hopes to learn how this extract modulates the microbiome in order to empower the immune system to be better at fighting cancer while also repairing body tissues. 

Other entities like Calidi Biotherapeutics Inc. (NYSE American: CLDI) are also undertaking their own R&D programs aimed at commercializing immune therapies against different forms of cancer. The future of cancer care looks bright in light of all the resources being invested in personalizing cancer treatment using immunotherapy. 

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