Immunotherapy is a relatively recent type of cancer treatment that involves boosting the immune system to make it more effective at finding and killing cancer cells. It is often deployed together with other treatments such as chemotherapy to kill off as many cancer cells as possible and prevent them from growing.
However, treating solid tumors using immunotherapy can be extremely difficult as tumors are heterogeneous, meaning each person’s tumor is different. This makes it harder to create general “one size fits all” treatments for cancer patients, even when they are suffering from the same type of cancer.
A research team from biotech company Imvax comprised of neurosurgeons and immunologists is looking to develop a one-size-fits-all treatment that could be mass deployed with high success rates. Immunologist and Imvax chief scientific officer Mark Exley explains that the research team has a type of immunotherapy that uses tumor cells as an antigen source. Such a treatment would leverage the tumor’s own resources to fight it, essentially causing tumor cells to turn on each other and kill themselves off.
Exley that the team has received positive preclinical and clinical data on the treatment’s effectiveness at killing cancer cells. In one instance, the researchers isolated dendritic cells from a patient, exposed the cells to tumor antigens, then reinfused them into the patient.
However, Houston Methodist Research Institute cancer and nanomedicine researcher Corinne Ying Xuan Chua (who wasn’t involved in the research) notes that this method requires a large number of dendritic cells because they eventually die off. As such, this approach usually results in a minute activation of the immune system.
Researchers can improve the effectiveness by inserting a diffusion chamber in the patient’s body temporarily and causing tumor cells to release both tumor-specific antigens and immunostimulatory molecules. This method of treatment uses each tumor’s uniqueness against them and could grant physicians a general treatment capable of treating a wide pool of cancer patients.
The research team found that patients who had gone through biodiffusion treatment had a stronger immune response to the treatment and longer progression-free survival rates.
David Andrews, the cofounder and chief medical officer of Imvax, has spent years treating glioblastoma, without a doubt the deadliest type of brain cancer, and recognizes the need for more effective treatments. Even with current methods of treatment, most glioblastoma patients have an average survival rate of around 15 months after diagnosis.
By using the biodiffusion chamber and leveraging critical resources from tumor cells, the research team could develop a treatment with much better survival outcomes than conventional treatments.
These promising findings along with the work being done by companies such as CNS Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (NASDAQ: CNSP) suggest that brain cancer patients may soon have effective treatments that not only alleviate disease symptoms but actually cure their ailments.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to CNS Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: CNSP) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CNSP
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