Experts all over the world especially in the United States were of the view that the claims made by the Israeli company that they would cure cancer in the coming year was rather a ‘farrago’ of scientific ‘gobbledygook’ and a frail attempt at a PR campaign.
The new treatment, announced on the 29th of January 2019 by The Jerusalem Post, is being developed by Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies (AEBi) under the leadership of its CEO Dr. Ilan Morad.
“The FDA regulates not only drugs but the way biotechs discuss investigational drugs,” said one Twitter user. “I suggest these folks hire experienced PR counsel. They need it.”
Another had this to say: “As someone with 10 years of molecular biology and medical experience, I strongly suspect the Israeli scientists…are completely misrepresenting their supposed discovery. But I want so, so badly for it to be true,” said John Jiao. “To my knowledge, there has never been a single published paper which discovered any one protein (peptide) that exists in a large plurality of all cancers, let alone every single one. Of the common ones, they all exist in normal cells as well. So, the idea that these scientists have somehow, without anyone else developing anything remotely close, come up with a cancer cure all that is not only totally effective but also has no side effects? This looks, sounds, smells and feels like snake oil.”
A lot of other social media users were optimistic and many of the discussions rounded out to include long-standing conspiratorial beliefs.
And then there was this from Facebook user, Leigh Wharton, “I am just here to see all the conspiracy theorists, and I am NOT disappointed.”
She wasn’t wrong. Facebook user, Keven W. London followed up with this: “These guys better get some serious security, because big pharma isn’t going to allow this if they can do something about it.”
One Facebook user, Lisa Marie, had this to say. “So many negative comments on something potentially so amazing. Try optimism once, I promise it doesn’t hurt.”
On behalf of the American Cancer Society (ACS) on his blog, “A Cure For Cancer? Not So Fast,” Len Lichtenfeld, MD, ACS chief medical officer cautioned: “…it goes without saying, we all share the aspirational hope that they are correct. Unfortunately, we must be aware that this is far from proven as an effective treatment for people with cancer, let alone a cure.”
Russell Pachynski, MD, an assistant professor at Washington University School of Medicine and a medical oncologist at Siteman Cancer Center, said there simply isn’t enough peer-reviewed data to take the Israelis’ claims seriously. “Their ideas do have some merit, and certainly phage display represents a powerful tool that can be used for something like they claim,” he said. “That being said, the only data they show on their website is presumably not peer reviewed and is difficult to interpret in that context. In fact, the ‘partial negative control’ actually looks like it has similar effects to their cancer targeted peptide. They may have a great idea for the ‘cure’ of cancer, but without convincing, peer-reviewed, published data showing evidence of this, their claims are difficult to take at face value. Even promising therapeutics that have been successful through Phase II human trials often have negative Phase III controlled trials. Their therapeutic, from all I can tell, has not even shown efficacy in established mouse tumor models that have been presented at scientific meetings or published in PubMed.”
Brad Gillenwater, senior director of Global Programs and Communications at the National Foundation For Cancer Research (NFCR) agreed. “Their claims are vastly premature and considering that little if any published science, subject to peer review, lends one to question these claims. We all want a cure for cancer and the National Foundation For Cancer Research supports scientists with this goal in mind, but their work, like the work of so many other respected and validated cancer scientists, is subject to criticism and or peer review, a cornerstone to science itself.”
This is based on a mouse experiment which is described as “exploratory.” It appears at this point there is not a well-established program of experiments which could better define how this works—and may not work—as it moves from the laboratory bench to the clinic.
We all have hope that a cure for cancer can be found and found quickly. It is certainly possible this approach may work. However, as experience has taught us so many times, the gap from a successful mouse experiment to effective, beneficial application of exciting laboratory concepts to helping cancer patients at the bedside is in fact a long and treacherous journey, filled with unforeseen and unanticipated obstacles.
After comments starting pouring from all directions based on the magnitude of the claim Israel’s corroborated in The Times of Israel post stating that a cancer cure is “doubtful” after the Israeli team admitted it “can’t afford” to publish findings.
“The CEO of the company behind the research told The Times of Israel on Tuesday that it has not published its research in medical journals, as is the norm, because it ‘can’t afford’ to do so, but that the results of its pre-clinical trials have been ‘very good,’” The Times reported.
“We are working on a complete cure for cancer,” Morad, the CEO and founder of the Nes Ziona-based startup Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd. (AEBi), told The Times of Israel Tuesday, echoing claims the firm made to The Jerusalem Post earlier this week. “We still have a long way to go, but in the end we believe we will have a cure for all kinds of cancer patients and with very few side effects.”
The company is now in the process of patenting the concept and funding till date was from private sponsors. The team now aims to advance its research and get to clinical trials as fast as possible, Morad said.
Yet many choose not to give up hope, like one Twitter user who simply answered the deluge of skepticism with this indiscriminate and unscientific response, three exclamation points and all: “We will see won’t we!!!”
PNN/Agencies