ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd. (OTCBB: IMUC), a clinical-stage biotechnology company that is developing immune based therapies for the treatment of brain and other cancers, announced today that it has been featured in an in-depth report by Griffin Securities, a New York-based brokerage firm, highlighting the importance of the role that cancer stem cell (CSCs) targeting technology such as that employed by its lead product candidate, ICT-121, may play in developing future cancer treatments. The report highlights the stem cell hypothesis of cancer, a theory that states that all tumor types have a common cell group –CSCs- which are typically resistant to common therapeutic intervention that give rise to differentiated tumor tissues.
The report further summarizes how understanding these cells may be a crucial component of preventing, diagnosing and treating the diseases, highlighting two of the Company’s therapeutic programs as potential approaches to harnessing the immune system in the fight against cancer.
The Report states that “Its drug ICT-121 is an example of active immunization, which involves administering an off-the-shelf antigen to stimulate the immune system to recognize the antigen as foreign. In this case, the antigen is a nine amino acid epitope of CD133, which is found on many different types of CSCs… ImmunoCellular has a patent on this molecule and on its use as a vaccine. The company is also pursuing a passive immunization approach to combating cancer. This involves administering a monoclonal antibody preparation to identify the CSCs for subsequent destruction by the immune system.”