Using a novel stem cell based technology of Cellonis Biotechnologies, Beijing, a Chinese research/medical team may eliminate a glioma -- brain cancer -- of a 36 year old Norwegian patient in a hospital in Beijing. The treatment shows that the activated immune system can directly kill tumor stem cells as well as cancer daughter cells. The amazing outcome of this novel treatment within a Comprehensive Cancer Therapy tells Cellonis that the future vaccination therapies may be targeted towards cancer stem cell lysates to improve the antigen-presenting Dendritic Cell response.
Arve Johnsen, 36, from Norway, a patient diagnosed with glioma in 2006 and relapsed in 2009 after surgical resection. He arrived in Beijing in August 2009 with his wife Vanja and a one-year-old daughter, with the hope that the doctors in Norway were wrong. They told the family there is no other option anymore in the Scandinavian countries or in Europe for Arve to control the progress of disease and prolong his life. Driven by the hope that their daughter could grow up with a father, the Johnsen family started a research campaign to find other treatments worldwide, to give Arve a new hope.
Comprehensive Cancer Therapy in China
The Johnsen's, having heard about the sustainable success of a Comprehensive Cancer Therapy (CCT) in China, decided to try for this last chance in a country 10,000 km away from Norway. This kind of CCT had been developed in the past few years by a Chinese team of scientific researchers and clinical doctors in Beijing, combining conventional cancer treatments with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and cell therapies.
The role of cancer stem cells in the tumors
Scientists previously believed that tumors are lumps of cancer tissue that must be completely removed or destroyed to cure a patient. But over the past few years, researchers have learned that cancer stem cells (CSCs), comprising a small population of cells, appear to be responsible for the initiation, upkeep and relapse of malignant tumors. Even if a tumor is almost completely obliterated, it will regenerate from the surviving CSCs and become even more resistant to treatment than before.
Current therapies, including cell therapy, generally do not target CSCs. This allows CSCs to survive until after chemotherapy or radiation treatments. Killing those cells is a promising strategy to eliminate tumors and prevent them from re-growing.
Prof. Lily Shum: Perfect integration of stem cells and immunotherapies
"The CSCs may explain why common treatments, particularly chemotherapy, are not sufficient to kill tumors. In fact, despite the continuous development of new chemotherapeutic agents, brain tumors can develop and remain resistant to those therapies. The integration of stem cells and immune technologies seems to give us a chance to find out a new way to target at CSCs," says Prof. Lily Shum, PhD, the chief scientist of Cellonis.
"The difficult issue in our project is how to capture and classify CSCs. With our patented technologies, we are able to isolate the CSCs from patient's brain tumor tissues, culture them and induce the multi-drug and radiation resistance. These cells possess very strong carcinogenicity, self-renewal, and also a very strong drug and radiation resistance."