Mainstream Medicine Discovers What
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In their quest to beat cancer, heavy-hitters like Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck & Co. are now focusing on experimental drugs that work with the human immune system (instead of against it, the way chemotherapy does). The results so far look very promising.
Money is at the heart of it, of course, and investors are closely watching the progress of these drug tests. There's a chance we're going to see real results from these pharmaceutical treatments, and soon.
At the very least, these new drugs may extend the length of time cancer patients stay in remission. And with luck they may add years to a patient's life — or even lead to an outright cure for some types of cancer. But research on that won't be available for another year.
Equally exciting is that the new approach hints at a way to keep metastatic cancer under control for long periods of time, as opposed to jumping from one chemo drug to another as a tumor develops resistance. It turns out you don't need a succession of different chemo drugs to chase after shape-shifting cancer cells. You just need a strong immune system—exactly what cancer advocates like myself, Bill Henderson and Ty Bollinger have been saying for years.
That's because immunotherapy drugs (or better yet, natural immune boosters) allow a patient's immune system to keep up with mutations in a tumor. Early results of the new drugs suggest that patients given as few as nine months to live could survive for several years.
These new therapies could potentially bring in billions of dollars for the pharmaceutical companies promoting them. Really, it's the first innovative method for attacking cancer in a decade that's come out of Big Pharma. So much research in recent years has gone toward treating uncontrolled cell growth and genetic processes that little progress was made for treating advanced tumors.
Money is at the heart of it, of course, and investors are closely watching the progress of these drug tests. There's a chance we're going to see real results from these pharmaceutical treatments, and soon.
At the very least, these new drugs may extend the length of time cancer patients stay in remission. And with luck they may add years to a patient's life — or even lead to an outright cure for some types of cancer. But research on that won't be available for another year.
Equally exciting is that the new approach hints at a way to keep metastatic cancer under control for long periods of time, as opposed to jumping from one chemo drug to another as a tumor develops resistance. It turns out you don't need a succession of different chemo drugs to chase after shape-shifting cancer cells. You just need a strong immune system—exactly what cancer advocates like myself, Bill Henderson and Ty Bollinger have been saying for years.
That's because immunotherapy drugs (or better yet, natural immune boosters) allow a patient's immune system to keep up with mutations in a tumor. Early results of the new drugs suggest that patients given as few as nine months to live could survive for several years.
These new therapies could potentially bring in billions of dollars for the pharmaceutical companies promoting them. Really, it's the first innovative method for attacking cancer in a decade that's come out of Big Pharma. So much research in recent years has gone toward treating uncontrolled cell growth and genetic processes that little progress was made for treating advanced tumors.
They see dollars, and lots of 'em. . .
Bristol-Myers is developing a new immune-boosting cancer drug candidate called nivolumab. If it works for lung cancer, as they hope, it could bring in sales close to the recent drug Avastin: $5.8 billion in sales just last year. Made by Roche, Avastin is used to fight colon cancer and other tumors.
The concept behind drugs that strengthen the immune system is this: The immune system is able to respond to changes in the body's enemies. Get the immune system to adapt to fighting any dangerous malignancy, and you'll give mutating cancer cells a fair fight. The immune cells are able to change right along with the cancer cells. The new immunotherapy drugs target the immune system's T-cells, well known as our body's key defenders against germs and infections.
T-cells have something akin to an off-switch, called PD-1. These new immune-boosting drugs essentially prevent this switch from ever going off. This makes it more likely for T-cells to recognize and attack invading tumors as dangerous. Prior to this, tumors were able to fly under the T-cell radar and weren't immediately recognized as a risk.
But—and this is the most important point of all—many experts feel this new revolution in drug design will bring about a paradigm shift for fighting cancer. That is to say, it's a paradigm shift for mainstream medicine. Alternative therapies have focused on the immune system for decades.
Merck's senior vice president Gary Gilliland stated immune therapy was the key to finally eradicating tumors. "We are pretty good at shrinking tumors," he said in an interview, "but not good at getting rid of them." This could be the key.
The concept behind drugs that strengthen the immune system is this: The immune system is able to respond to changes in the body's enemies. Get the immune system to adapt to fighting any dangerous malignancy, and you'll give mutating cancer cells a fair fight. The immune cells are able to change right along with the cancer cells. The new immunotherapy drugs target the immune system's T-cells, well known as our body's key defenders against germs and infections.
T-cells have something akin to an off-switch, called PD-1. These new immune-boosting drugs essentially prevent this switch from ever going off. This makes it more likely for T-cells to recognize and attack invading tumors as dangerous. Prior to this, tumors were able to fly under the T-cell radar and weren't immediately recognized as a risk.
But—and this is the most important point of all—many experts feel this new revolution in drug design will bring about a paradigm shift for fighting cancer. That is to say, it's a paradigm shift for mainstream medicine. Alternative therapies have focused on the immune system for decades.
Merck's senior vice president Gary Gilliland stated immune therapy was the key to finally eradicating tumors. "We are pretty good at shrinking tumors," he said in an interview, "but not good at getting rid of them." This could be the key.
The results are astounding
Bristol-Myers did something similar two years ago with a drug called Yervoy, tested on patients suffering from advanced, late-stage melanoma. Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer, and indeed one of the deadliest of all cancers.
Yervoy doubled the number of patients surviving four years after their diagnosis to 19 percent. This success is what brought the idea of immunotherapy to light in conventional care. Now you might say immunotherapy has officially been accepted into mainstream medicine.
A Merck drug, Lambrolizumab, shrank tumors in 38 percent of advanced melanoma patients, with even better results at the highest doses: a 52 percent tumor shrinkage.
These immunotherapy drugs have shown such promising results early on that some doctors are speculating that patients with melanoma could be cured. Not just in remission — cured.
Nivolumab, the drug in development by Bristol-Myers, is in final-stage trials for patients with lung cancer, kidney tumors, and melanoma. So far, nivolumab has been shown to shrink tumors for between 18 and 28 percent of patients who didn't respond to other treatments.
And for 53 patients given a combination dose of nivolumab and Yervoy, 82 percent were alive after a year, which was a better rate than seen with Yervoy alone.
The race is on for big drug companies to get their hands on a piece of this pie. Right now, at least six other companies are pursuing tests of immune therapy drugs for patients facing advanced cancer.
Much is yet to be discovered, including side effects. Both Bristol-Myers and Merck drug tests showed potential inflammation of the lung as a side effect, among other complications.
Yervoy doubled the number of patients surviving four years after their diagnosis to 19 percent. This success is what brought the idea of immunotherapy to light in conventional care. Now you might say immunotherapy has officially been accepted into mainstream medicine.
A Merck drug, Lambrolizumab, shrank tumors in 38 percent of advanced melanoma patients, with even better results at the highest doses: a 52 percent tumor shrinkage.
These immunotherapy drugs have shown such promising results early on that some doctors are speculating that patients with melanoma could be cured. Not just in remission — cured.
Nivolumab, the drug in development by Bristol-Myers, is in final-stage trials for patients with lung cancer, kidney tumors, and melanoma. So far, nivolumab has been shown to shrink tumors for between 18 and 28 percent of patients who didn't respond to other treatments.
And for 53 patients given a combination dose of nivolumab and Yervoy, 82 percent were alive after a year, which was a better rate than seen with Yervoy alone.
The race is on for big drug companies to get their hands on a piece of this pie. Right now, at least six other companies are pursuing tests of immune therapy drugs for patients facing advanced cancer.
Much is yet to be discovered, including side effects. Both Bristol-Myers and Merck drug tests showed potential inflammation of the lung as a side effect, among other complications.
Let's wait and see
Isn't it nice that mainstream medicine has finally recognized the immune system as a reliable cancer-fighting strategy? And the field is quickly getting crowded. These PD-1-targeting, tumor-shrinking drugs aren't the only approaches to bolstering the immune system that are being studied right now. Amgen Inc. is testing an anti-cancer virus therapy. Because antibodies and viruses target the immune system in different ways, it's believed an anti-cancer virus approach may produce a synergistic effect when combined with other treatments like the ones being developed at Merck and Bristol-Myers.
I think they're on to something. They do, too — Merck senior vice president Gary Gilliland told reporters they have their best people and best teams working on this angle for treatment.
The thing to remember, at the heart of this, is the power of the human immune system. Stimulating it leads to great things. Personally, I'd rather stimulate it naturally, with supplements and dietary approaches that don't prompt dramatic, unknown side effect. Refer to our archives for information on the many ways you can boost your immune system naturally, using proven approaches such as chlorella and spirulina supplements, bovine colostrum, and even good old-fashioned exercise. There's so much material on this subject, it's hard to know where to begin, but I suggest you check out Issue #5, Issue #139, Issue #177, Issue #208 and Issue #220.
I think they're on to something. They do, too — Merck senior vice president Gary Gilliland told reporters they have their best people and best teams working on this angle for treatment.
The thing to remember, at the heart of this, is the power of the human immune system. Stimulating it leads to great things. Personally, I'd rather stimulate it naturally, with supplements and dietary approaches that don't prompt dramatic, unknown side effect. Refer to our archives for information on the many ways you can boost your immune system naturally, using proven approaches such as chlorella and spirulina supplements, bovine colostrum, and even good old-fashioned exercise. There's so much material on this subject, it's hard to know where to begin, but I suggest you check out Issue #5, Issue #139, Issue #177, Issue #208 and Issue #220.
