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Who Says There’s No Good News?

Faster Please: A small team of Israeli scientists think they might have found the first complete cure for cancer.

“We believe we will offer in a year’s time a complete cure for cancer,” said Dan Aridor, of a new treatment being developed by his company, Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd. (AEBi), which was founded in 2000 in the ITEK incubator in the Weizmann Science Park. AEBi developed the SoAP platform, which provides functional leads to very difficult targets.

“Our cancer cure will be effective from day one, will last a duration of a few weeks and will have no or minimal side-effects at a much lower cost than most other treatments on the market,” Aridor said. “Our solution will be both generic and personal.”

It sounds fantastical, especially considering that an estimated 18.1 million new cancer cases are diagnosed worldwide each year, according to reports by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Further, every sixth death in the world is due to cancer, making it the second leading cause of death (second only to cardiovascular disease).

Aridor, chairman of the board of AEBi and CEO Dr. Ilan Morad, say their treatment, which they call MuTaTo (multi-target toxin) is essentially on the scale of a cancer antibiotic – a disruption technology of the highest order.

The potentially game-changing anti-cancer drug is based on SoAP technology, which belongs to the phage display group of technologies. It involves the introduction of DNA coding for a protein, such as an antibody, into a bacteriophage – a virus that infects bacteria. That protein is then displayed on the surface of the phage. Researchers can use these protein-displaying phages to screen for interactions with other proteins, DNA sequences and small molecules.

(RTWT @ A cure for cancer? Israeli scientists say they think they found one )

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Casey Klahn January 29, 2019, 9:14 AM

    And commenters who have something bad to say about the Jews, in 3, 2…1…

    Here’s hoping this is for real and some relief from cancer can materialize.

  • tim January 29, 2019, 9:20 AM

    So the muzzies and the anti-Semites (but I repeat myself) will pass on this, right?

  • Fletcher Christian January 29, 2019, 11:38 AM

    My prediction; a hostile takeover, followed by this prospective cure being buried. An effective, low-cost cure that only takes a few weeks with no follow-up? Can’t have that! What would the shareholders of Big Pharma, the health insurers and the hospital industry say?

  • DrTedNelson January 29, 2019, 11:48 AM

    But is it GMO and gluten-free? Vegan?

  • theduchessofkitty January 29, 2019, 12:15 PM

    Fletcher is right. A hostile takeover, followed by burial of treatment so no one will ever hear if it again, is more likely.

    Another possibility: a jealous Palestinian or several attack the building, killing the scientist and burning their research. Dead Jews, cure goes up in smoke. Can’t have Jews save the world. (They’re still miffed after watching Independence Day.) Yeah, anti-Semitism can be that powerful.

    Possibility 3: it’s too good to be true. A SoAP technology using a MuTaTo treatment? Which soap? MuTaTo, tomato, potato. Oh, heck: it’s a well-placed hoax.

    We all would love a cure, but life comes at us fast.

  • ghostsniper January 29, 2019, 12:51 PM

    I’ll believe it when I see it. If you understand how cancer works you will also be skeptical. Any “cure”, which is two-fold, prevention and repair, will need to happen at the DNA level for that is where it originates.

    A couple weeks ago I was fantasizing out loud to my wife about a thought process I had where, if someone could find a way to identify the triggering mechanism in each cell and determine which is on and which is off so that the entire body could be scanned and the cancer inflicted cells alone be removed without damaging any around them. This of course implied the damage done by the removal of the cells alone is not damaging, and that is where the fantasy part comes in. This is because when the cells are removed a secondary problem occurs in the spaces left behind. So at it’s base I don’t believe a “cure” can be found but I do believe the mechanism that causes excessive cell splitting to occur can be identified and controlled. Think of it as a vaccine, not a repair. I have watched several family members fall from cancer and it is not fun, it is a slow torture, for all concerned. I personally believe the system itself is against any so called cure as cancer is a big money maker. When people profit from something they are not willing to do away with it. Until it negatively effects them.

  • Fletcher Christian January 29, 2019, 5:09 PM

    Ghostsniper:

    I see your point, but remember that cells die all the time and are replaced even (maybe especially) in healthy tissues.

    Any cure such as you describe would work a great deal better at very early stages, with many fewer side effects. One of the effects of killing large numbers of cancer cells is kidney damage caused by huge amounts of purines released from dying cells, which turn into uric acid. I know this because it happened to me; about 18 years ago I was admitted to hospital with a huge tumour which was inoperable because it had wrapped around, and infiltrated, one of the major veins in my abdomen. Chemo got rid of it, but in the early stages I was given drugs more often given to gout patients to avoid the problem I describe.

    I think the biggest problem with most if not all cancers is detecting them too late; in many cases, the only symptoms are vague and non-specific until it gets to stage III or IV and already metastasised. I am a firm believer in screening programmes; they lead to better outcomes and lower cost.

    Even a perfectly discriminating treatment would cause other problems in late-stage patients, because the dying cancer cells don’t just disappear.

  • tscottme January 29, 2019, 5:51 PM

    What are these people going to think someday laying in bed dying of nothing?

  • ghostsniper January 29, 2019, 7:17 PM

    Fletcher, I agree with what you said, that is why I wrote that like I did.
    Prevention, and repair.
    And affecting other cells, as you said.
    What I didn’t say, to avoid getting too detailed was, perhaps a laser that would vaporize the cancer cells and then a process by which the vapor (purines) would be exhausted from the space.

    So I revert back to the process by which cancer cells start, which is at the DNA level, and determining what causes some cells to have unlimited growth and then finding a way to change that so it can’t happen. All cells have growth but some, the cancerous ones, don’t stop.

    Many years ago when in my hallucinogenic days in europe I read a book in german titled “Fields” that dealt with the reasons why all living things are what they are. Why doesn’t a tree grow into the shape of a cat? The reason is the same as, when I design a house why doesn’t it end up an airport? Because the blueprint tells it what it will be, and in the living things the blueprint is the DNA. Therefore, what is it at the DNA level that tells a normal cell to be cancerous? Find that out and you will then learn how to prevent cancer. Just imagine if a cure had been discovered decades ago but suppressed for attainment of the dollar. I’d be willing to gather a posse and hunt some people down.
    BTW, glad your cancer cure was successful!

  • AesopFan January 29, 2019, 9:52 PM

    “My prediction; a hostile takeover, followed by this prospective cure being buried. An effective, low-cost cure that only takes a few weeks with no follow-up? Can’t have that! What would the shareholders of Big Pharma, the health insurers and the hospital industry say?”
    ” I personally believe the system itself is against any so called cure as cancer is a big money maker. When people profit from something they are not willing to do away with it. Until it negatively effects them.”

    One advantage of announcing the possible cure so far in advance of proving it works: it makes it harder to generate one of those takeover-and-bury scenarios, which depend on flying under the radar to succeed. That is, if no one (relatively speaking) knows there was a possible cure, they also won’t know it was suppressed. Once the public has tuned in, someone will keep asking “where is it?” — of course, the supressors could claim that “it didn’t work after all, too bad” — but could they keep that up in these days of group-sourced investigation?
    “Just imagine if a cure had been discovered decades ago but suppressed for attainment of the dollar. I’d be willing to gather a posse and hunt some people down.”
    Indeed.
    I suspect that Big Pharma et al. will figure out a way to make money even out of a successful cure.

  • MIKE GUENTHER January 30, 2019, 6:51 AM

    Big pharma already makes big money on cures. We in the US subsidize the research and discovery phase of every new drug developed.

    Once a new drug or treatment has the ok of the FDA, the sky’s the limit as far as price is concerned. Why is it that the manufacturer has at least a ten year window before generics can be made?…It’s so the original maker can recoup their R&D investment plus profit for the shareholders.

  • Terry January 30, 2019, 7:54 AM

    Cancer. Probably the biggest money maker for the medical industry game. The likely-hood of a cure being allowed is next to zero.

    Does anyone here remember the research on caner being conducted at Stanford University in the seventies? One of my cousins was a lab tech overseeing worms that were a major part of the research. One week there was a big discovery and the top personnel had a long meeting with outside suits types. Within a couple days the operation was closed. No believable explanation given.

    Cure cancer and the medical industry would collapse. Basic economics. Cancer “treatment” floats the boat and keeps it afloat.

  • Nori January 30, 2019, 11:46 AM

    Well,Casey, no Jew-hatred by anyone, but the cynicism is pretty deep. Understandable, considering how we the dirt people have played Charlie Brown to TPTB Lucy’s football for so very long.
    Some of the smartest and most innovative people on planet Earth are Israeli. Bet they get this done, and Godspeed. Have a friend who’s wasting away from pancreatic cancer.

  • ghostsniper January 30, 2019, 1:59 PM

    “Big pharma already makes big money on cures.”

    Cure or remedy?
    I’ll take either but I’d prefer prevention.

    “It’s so the original maker can recoup their R&D investment plus profit for the shareholders.”

    Right. And how many people must suffer while that game is being played?

  • MIKE GUENTHER January 30, 2019, 4:20 PM

    GS,

    It’s the free market. Price controls on big pharma will put a serious crimp on R&D for new drugs.

    Add to that the fact that if one can’t afford the newest drug or treatment, big pharma will often subsidize or give you the drug.

    One of my grandkids has SMA…kind of like muscular distrophy. There is a new treatment that will slow or stop the progression of the disease. It costs almost $1million a year. For whatever reason, my daughter’s insurance won’t pay for the drug. The manufacturer gave it to them.

    If you pay attention to the disclaimers at the end of commercials for new drugs, they tell you if you can’t afford it, they will help you out.

  • Fletcher Christian January 30, 2019, 4:54 PM

    Ghostsniper:

    There is an answer coming up, probably, the same answer as to so many other problems:

    Nanotech. For medical use, or any other sort of repair for that matter, it would undoubtedly have to be coupled with advanced AI. Not necessarily true, sapient AI, even if that’s possible.

    Of course, there will be very many who try to block the advance of nanotechnology. It’s pretty close to the ultimate in disruptive technology, and one of its effects is one that some people will cheerfully kill to prevent.

    I have a very nasty, cynical view of human nature. One of the attractions of being rich is that you get stuff that most people can’t have and get to lord it over those that have not. If more or less anything material becomes as cheap as dirt, that goes away. And the people who hath will kill to keep things the way they are. And I don’t think that people with that attitude crop up with any particular party or political affiliation, either.

  • ghostsniper January 30, 2019, 7:40 PM

    @Mike, that’s a “quasi” free market at best.
    In this scenario the first peoples to use the new drugs pay the highest amount but those that need the drugs later get them at a more reasonable price.

    3 years ago I was diagnosed during a routine VA blood test and found I was positive for Hep C. WTF? I had no idea. Backtracking and investigating among many other people the only possible vector was through the massive amount of pneumatic shots I received in the army while overseas. (was injected with the swine flu in 1976 as a test guinea pig and was deathly ill with about 700 other soldiers, for example). I recieved over 200 shots during the 37 months I was stationed in Germany and more than half were by the pneumatic guns. Standing in long lines, everybody had both shirt sleeves rolled up as they moved slowly forward. Medics on both sides holding guns and needles. It wasn’t unusual to get 10 or more shots at a time.

    The face of the gun is held tight against your upper arm and then fired injecting the medication deep into the tissue. The guns have 3″ backsplash shields with everybody’s blood running down it. The only possible safe place was the first guy in line. The 2nd guy got the backsplash blood from the first guy slammed deep into his arm. And so on til the 700th guy got the full monty. What a cocktail for the people with last names that started with W, X, Y, Z. My last name initial is in the middle so I was only exposed to 350 previous people’s history.

    Anyway I was offered a “cure” in a brand new product named Epclusa, just 1 pill a day, at the same time everyday, for 14 weeks, 84 pills total for the low low price of just $1,000 each. $84,000 total. I did the deal and now I’m “cured”, and was also vaccinated against Hep A and B which I wasn’t positive for.

    Now, about that R&D business. Hep C was just discovered in the early 90’s (my contraction was in the mid-late 70’s) and within a few years “cures” were discovered. The Hep C virus is very small and until technology allowed the creation of filters small enough to detect it no one even knew it existed. As the years went by and R&D continued to perfect the filters more people were discovered with the virus and new drugs were created. The Epclusa drug I was prescribed was about the 5th generation. All the people before me that were “cured” with earlier drugs had to take subsequent newer drugs as the virus was found in their systems with the newer filters.

    What all this means is that even though I was considered “cured” after completion of the Epclusa drug a careful reading of the research (which I did) shows that there can never be a real cure – that is, the complete eradication of the virus from my body. There can only be increasing levels of very fine detection. This is why I must be tested once a year for the rest of my life. Eventually I will probably have to take a newer drug and be “cured” again.

    Now, here’s the part that really galls me. I’m a naturally inquisitive person about many things and when I found I had a life threatening disease I got in it waist deep. I had to find out, and since I already had a basic medical background and a deep everything medical interest, that was what I did. But, the doctors shape themselves like pretzels to avoid answering the hard questions I posed. The doctors told me I was “cured” but my research said differently and when asked, all the doctors slithered around my questions with non-answers. I’m a master communicator but this problem was evading me so I pondered and pondered. One day I finally figured out a statement and a question all in one that I posed to the head doctor in charge of the Hep C department in the VA hospital. She had no way out. She paused, looked down at the table, and without meeting my eyes, admitted that the Hep C cure was a moving goalpost and complete eradication of the disease will probably never be possible. It infects all the cells in the body, every single one of them and they have no idea how small the virus is.

    Now, why wasn’t this information availed to me voluntarily right from the very beginning? Why did I have to outsmart the geniuses and then hold their thumbs in the door jamb and force the correct answer?

    I believe it is the money. In my case, $84k. If you were told you had a disease that will never be cured 100% would you spend that kind of money?

    R&D? Please. I know better. Theft by deception. Think of all the people that have paid $84k for Epclusa convinced they have been cured when instead they have been lied too. Yes, a lie of omission is still a lie. But here’s the best part according to the rules set forth by R&D. People today may be getting Epclusa for a lower cost than what it was when I got it. But we all get to die earlier whether we are wealthy or not. As Denninger has said, “The medical establishment will be straightened out right after it crashes and not 1 minute sooner.”

  • pbird January 30, 2019, 9:20 PM

    Years ago I got hep A in a restaurant where they had a guy working who gave it to a bunch of people in the area. I was never treated for it but recovered and went on with life. Later it was discovered that I had had it and was never allowed to donate blood again. I suppose they don’t really believe that goes away either.

  • ghostsniper January 31, 2019, 4:30 AM

    The same thing happened to my brother in law who did 22 years in the navy, cept worse. Much worse.

    In 1998 he didn’t even know he was infected with Hep C but got very ill with the eventual result of having a liver transplant. I have a picture of him sitting reclined in the hospital bed unclothed looking completely distressed and beaten, with a full length nasty looking Y shaped, heavily stitched up incision. He cleaned up nicely and was back in business after a year or so, though he must take anti-rejection drugs for life.

    Then, 2 years ago he was feeling poorly again and got checked. The transplanted liver had Hep C that was undetectable by technology at the time it was transplanted. (my personal belief now is that the Hep C stayed in his system and then infected the transplanted liver – remember, it is in every cell) Now he’s on the list to get another liver.

    My understanding is the liver is very difficult to transplant because it has the consistency of jello in a very thin sandwich bag, and it covers a very large convoluted area. The surgeons end up just “stuffing” it into available regions – like stuffing too many guest pillows under the bed. If, for example, you have a container of cold jello and stick a knife in it and pull it out it leaves a scar in the jello that can be seen. That is sort of the effect Hep C has on the liver, scaring. The way the scaring is detected is through sonograms – broadcasted subsonic sounds. The scars bounce the sound waves erratically, creating a picture. Because the scaring is throughout and the liver is large and convoluted they have come up with some clever ways to detect the scaring. When they did my sonogram, at one point I had to lay on my left side and take a big breath and hold it, that compresses the liver so that it was tight and under tension. The sonogram trigger looks similar to a computer mouse and is traced over the skin surface. In this particular case the area she was trying to detect was hidden behind other organs so she “bounced” the sound waves off the back side of my sternum on an angle and could get a reverse picture of the scarring which the computer straightened back out, and along with hundreds of other signals, eventually producing a 3d image of my liver and the internal scarring. I found the whole process very interesting even though I was the test subject.

  • MIKE GUENTHER January 31, 2019, 7:01 AM

    @GS,

    Welcome to the HepC club. I found out I had it in 2010. I also got it from my military service back in the late 70’s. Same as you, the VA took care of it for me, except that I had the older treatment option, the three drug cocktail.

    Interferon injections every week, plus Ribavirin three times a day, plus a new drug called Teleprevir that was three times a day for three months.

    I figured out it would have cost me around 250 grand just for the drugs if I’d had to pay out of pocket.

    If you don’t have any side effects or minimal side effects, consider yourself luckier than most. All the drugs I had to take had some bad side effects, some of which I still feel today and my treatment has been over for almost seven years now.

  • ghostsniper January 31, 2019, 7:28 AM

    It’s a club I’d rather not be in.
    Everybody that was in any version of the militaries should be tested.
    A standard blood test won’t do it, it requires a special test.
    They draw 10 vials of blood.
    How about a class action against the pentagon?

  • ghostsniper January 31, 2019, 7:28 AM

    It’s a club I’d rather not be in.
    Everybody that was in any version of the militaries should be tested.
    A standard blood test won’t do it, it requires a special test.
    They draw 10 vials of blood.
    How about a class action against the pentagon?

  • AesopFan January 31, 2019, 9:05 AM

    “It’s a club I’d rather not be in.
    Everybody that was in any version of the militaries should be tested.”

    These stories give a new meaning to our mostly sincere, but sometimes rotely delivered, “thank you for your service.”
    So, to you all, a heart-felt gratitude for your sacrifices, both the visible ones in war and the invisible (to us) in peace, and prayers for your healing.

  • Snakepit Kansas February 1, 2019, 5:50 PM

    AesopFan,
    I appreciate your sincere thanks on behalf of my Dad, who was a B-47 mechanic in the 50’s, plus my cousin who suffered serious injuries in a Blackhawk crash on 28MAY14 in Afghanistan.

    I have few regrets in life. I didn’t serve. I give blood platelets regularly as doing my part.