Biotechnology company Northwest Biotherapeutics (“NW Bio”) announced its vaccine, DCVax, was featured on both Fox News and Fox Business News on Nov. 7, 2013.
Dr. Marc Siegel, a clinical associate professor at NYU’s Langone Medical Center, hosted the segment. He described DCVax as a potentially life-extending treatment for all solid tumor cancers, due to its use of biomarkers from a patient’s own tumor cells to activate the person’s immune system to fight cancer within the body.
The process begins with surgical removal of a patient’s tumor, as described by Dr. Lee Tessler, who is participating in a current late-stage Phase III trial of the DCVax immune therapy for brain cancer at the Long Island Brain Tumor Center. The patient’s immune cells are then harvested and exposed, in a laboratory setting, to the biomarkers taken from the patient’s tumor. These conditioned immune cells are then injected back into the patient through a simple under-the-skin injection in the upper arm, similar to a flu shot. These “educated” immune cells then mobilize the patient’s immune system to fight any tumor cells that bear the same biomarkers throughout the body.
In preliminary trials, according to Dr. Siegel, some patients with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), which is the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer, have seen survival times that are more than double what would be expected under the current standard of care, which consists of surgical removal of the tumor, radiation and chemotherapy. The final stage of DCVax clinical trials for GBM (Phase III) is being conducted at more than 50 sites throughout the United States and Europe.
“Each cancer vaccine is personalized, and it takes just eight days to produce enough for three to five years’ worth of treatment,” said Dr. Siegel. “It’s more cost-effective than older cancer vaccines, and the side effects are minimal versus standard treatments.”
The prognosis for brain cancer patients receiving standard of care has not significantly changed in decades, but DCVax has the potential to substantially improve and extend the lives of cancer patients – both operable and inoperable – without the toxic side effects associated with current treatments.
The Fox segments can be viewed at http://video.foxnews.com/v/2814859046001/could-our-own-bodies-hold-the-key-to-the-curing-cancer/?playlist_id=930909757001.
For more information about NW Bio, visit www.nwbio.com
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