Coronavirus Pandemic: Apocalypse Now! Or exaggerated scare story?

Pandamned • is a beautiful
kind of different style of documentary.

image.jpg

The documentary is fantastically cut & mixed ! It is not into your face - but more gentle; neither hysterical nor "crammed". It is a documentary that makes you and leaves you pondering about the world we live in, makes you reflect as it lingers hours after you watched it. It is also a video that can be watched by many different people, even those on the "dark side", or perhaps at least those who are just slightly wondering what's going on, without stepping over the boundary to the other side.

🔹 It starts with the interview of Prof Dr Ulrike Guérot (a very clear minded woman, which i happen to listen to the other week (in german language) in an interview about "The failure of the Left" - made by Punkt.Peradovic - which was mighty impressive).

🔹 Then an interview with Thomas Binder, cardiologist, who was one of the 22 scientists who scrutinized the infamous "Prof" "Dr" Drosten PCR paper (and if my mind isn't failing me, he even once got collected by the police without notice, in which they tried to put him into a psychiatry - something they also pulled off early in the pandemic (June 2020 i believe) with German lawyer and medical law specialist German Beate Bahner).

🔹 Member of Parliament / organic Farmer Urs Hans

🔹 Ole Dammegård also get's interviewed, nifty done ;-)

🔹 Norbert Häring, business journalist and author, "handelsblatt".

🔹 Monica Felgendreher, artist and organizing of protests "Querdenken Berlin"

🔹 Writer and lawyer Milosz Matuschek

🔹 fantastic woman and artist Mary Mauermeister - wow, clear and wise !

🔹 political activist, Founder of "Massvoll" movement, Nicolas Rimoldi

🔹 TV & Film actress Miriam Stein

🔹 Movie director Dietrich Brüggemann

🔹 historian Daniele Ganser

🔹 There is one exception in terms of heaviness: when Dr Dolores Cahill, professor for Immunology & micro biology, speaks out straight, explains, in her clear, calm yet determined voice, in which she at the end insists on a bleak future outlook for the injected for the years to come.

🔹 Immunologist / Micro biologist Dr Sucharit Bhakdi (very interesting !)

🔹 Lawyer Bart Maes

🔹 Gardner Godfried Seelen

You gonna love 💕 the end of this documentary about going into +1°C ice cold water - to strengthen your immune system. While they always told us, it will kills us... Does it, really ? What if it actually strengthens us ?


It is a profound, fantastic made documentary.

Between the interviews the film maker himself is part of the story, like an observer hovering, lingering, pondering - at the same time reflects internally about the world we live in.

I was very taken by the documentary and its quality, where the 2 hours felt well spend - and curiously - didn't even feel like 2 hour and 10 minutes !

Highly recommended
 
Last edited:
XPan said:
The WTF (World Economic Forum) at its "best" again

View attachment 59146

Via Attorney Dr. Reiner Füllmich's additional telegram channel (RA Reiner Füllmich Multimedia) - with the video scene in which a WTF panel says (and I know it has already been mentioned here two times, but I have never seen that video clip myself before - so I thought i'd link to it here:

"Covid has been one of the most profitable products ever"

Füllmich wrote: "A World Economic Forum panel on "Profiting from Pain" notes that an extraordinary increase in billionaires in the pharma sector is due to the most profitable product of all time: Covid-19."

Well, what a strange, strange show we are living in. They should call it "Ladies and Gentlemen; The largest ever Profiting from Global Genocide - A Work in progress !"

:barf:
Click to expand...

My phone won't open the link to the telegram channel video, so I went searching and it seems that Profiting from pain was a brief written by Oxfam.

Pandemic creates new billionaire every 30 hours — now a million people could fall into extreme poverty at same rate in 2022​

Published: 23rd May 2022

As the cost of essential goods rises faster than it has in decades, billionaires in the food and energy sectors are increasing their fortunes by $1 billion every two days.​

For every new billionaire created during the pandemic — one every 30 hours — nearly a million people could be pushed into extreme poverty in 2022 at nearly the same rate, reveals a new Oxfam brief today. “Profiting from Pain” is published as the World Economic Forum — the exclusive get-together of the global elite in Davos — takes place for the first time face-to-face since COVID-19, a period during which billionaires have enjoyed a huge boost to their fortunes.
“Billionaires are arriving in Davos to celebrate an incredible surge in their fortunes. The pandemic and now the steep increases in food and energy prices have, simply put, been a bonanza for them. Meanwhile, decades of progress on extreme poverty are now in reverse and millions of people are facing impossible rises in the cost of simply staying alive,” said Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director of Oxfam International.
The brief shows that 573 people became new billionaires during the pandemic, at the rate of one every 30 hours. We expect this year that 263 million more people will crash into extreme poverty, at a rate of a million people every 33 hours.

Billionaires’ wealth has risen more in the first 24 months of COVID-19 than in 23 years combined. The total wealth of the world’s billionaires is now equivalent to 13.9 percent of global GDP. This is a three-fold increase (up from 4.4 percent) in 2000.
“Billionaires’ fortunes have not increased because they are now smarter or working harder. Workers are working harder, for less pay and in worse conditions. The super-rich have rigged the system with impunity for decades and they are now reaping the benefits. They have seized a shocking amount of the world’s wealth as a result of privatization and monopolies, gutting regulation and workers’ rights while stashing their cash in tax havens — all with the complicity of governments,” said Bucher.
“Meanwhile, millions of others are skipping meals, turning off the heating, falling behind on bills and wondering what they can possibly do next to survive. Across East Africa, one person is likely dying every minute from hunger. This grotesque inequality is breaking the bonds that hold us together as humanity. It is divisive, corrosive and dangerous. This is inequality that literally kills.”
Oxfam’s new research also reveals that corporations in the energy, food and pharmaceutical sectors — where monopolies are especially common — are posting record-high profits, even as wages have barely budged and workers struggle with decades-high prices amid COVID-19. The fortunes of food and energy billionaires have risen by $453 billion in the last two years, equivalent to $1 billion every two days. Five of the largest energy companies (BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, Exxon and Chevron) are together making $2,600 profit every second, and there are now 62 new food billionaires.
Together with just three other companies, the Cargill family controls 70 percent of the global agricultural market. Last year Cargill made the biggest profit in its history ($5 billion in net income) and the company is expected to beat its record profit again in 2022. The Cargill family alone now has 12 billionaires, up from eight before the pandemic.
From Sri Lanka to Sudan, record-high global food prices are sparking social and political upheaval. 60 percent of low-income countries are on the brink of debt distress. While inflation is rising everywhere, price hikes are particularly devastating for low-wage workers whose health and livelihoods were already most vulnerable to COVID-19, particularly women, racialized and marginalized people. People in poorer countries spend more than twice as much of their income on food than those in rich countries.
  • Today, 2,668 billionaires — 573 more than in 2020 — own $12.7 trillion, an increase of $3.78 trillion.
  • The world’s ten richest men own more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of humanity, 3.1 billion people.
  • The richest 20 billionaires are worth more than the entire GDP of Sub-Saharan Africa.
  • A worker in the bottom 50 percent would have to work for 112 years to earn what a person in the top 1 percent gets in a single year.
  • High informality and overload due to care tasks have kept 4 million women in Latin America and the Caribbean out of the workforce. Half of working women of color in the US earn less than $15 an hour.

The pandemic has created 40 new pharma billionaires. Pharmaceutical corporations like Moderna and Pfizer are making $1,000 profit every second just from their monopoly control of the COVID-19 vaccine, despite its development having been supported by billions of dollars in public investments. They are charging governments up to 24 times more than the potential cost of generic production. 87 percent of people in low-income countries have still not been fully vaccinated.
“The extremely rich and powerful are profiting from pain and suffering. This is unconscionable. Some have grown rich by denying billions of people access to vaccines, others by exploiting rising food and energy prices. They are paying out massive bonuses and dividends while paying as little tax as possible. This rising wealth and rising poverty are two sides of the same coin, proof that our economic system is functioning exactly how the rich and powerful designed it to do,” said Bucher.
“Over two years since the pandemic began, after more than 20 million estimated deaths from COVID-19 and widespread economic destruction, government leaders in Davos face a choice: act as proxies for the billionaire class who plunder their economies, or take bold steps to act in the interests of their great majorities. One common economic sense measure above all will put this to the test: whether governments will finally tax billionaire wealth”.
Oxfam recommends that governments urgently:

  • Introduce one-off solidarity taxes on billionaires’ pandemic windfalls to fund support for people facing rising food and energy costs and a fair and sustainable recovery from COVID-19. Argentina adopted a one-off special levy dubbed the ‘millionaire’s tax’ and is now considering introducing a windfall tax on energy profits as well as a tax on undeclared assets held overseas to repay IMF debt. The super-rich have stashed nearly $8 trillion in tax havens.
  • End crisis profiteering by introducing a temporary excess profit tax of 90 percent to capture the windfall profits of big corporations across all industries. Oxfam estimated that such a tax on just 32 super-profitable multinational companies could have generated $104 billion in revenue in 2020.
  • Introduce permanent wealth taxes to rein in extreme wealth and monopoly power, as well as the outsized carbon emissions of the super-rich. An annual wealth tax on millionaires starting at just 2 percent, and 5 percent on billionaires, could generate $2.52 trillion a year —enough to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, make enough vaccines for the world, and deliver universal healthcare and social protection for everyone living in low- and lower middle-income countries.
Click to expand...
 
XPan said:
Pandamned • is a beautiful
kind of different style of documentary.

View attachment 59163

The documentary is fantastically cut & mixed ! It is not into your face - but more gentle; neither hysterical nor "crammed". It is a documentary that makes you and leaves you pondering about the world we live in, makes you reflect as it lingers hours after you watched it. It is also a video that can be watched by many different people, even those on the "dark side", or perhaps at least those who are just slightly wondering what's going on, without stepping over the boundary to the other side.

🔹 It starts with the interview of Prof Dr Ulrike Guérot (a very clear minded woman, which i happen to listen to the other week (in german language) in an interview about "The failure of the Left" - made by Punkt.Peradovic - which was mighty impressive).

🔹 Then an interview with Thomas Binder, cardiologist, who was one of the 22 scientists who scrutinized the infamous "Prof" "Dr" Drosten PCR paper (and if my mind isn't failing me, he even once got collected by the police without notice, in which they tried to put him into a psychiatry - something they also pulled off early in the pandemic (June 2020 i believe) with German lawyer and medical law specialist German Beate Bahner).

🔹 Member of Parliament / organic Farmer Urs Hans

🔹 Ole Dammegård also get's interviewed, nifty done ;-)

🔹 Norbert Häring, business journalist and author, "handelsblatt".

🔹 Monica Felgendreher, artist and organizing of protests "Querdenken Berlin"

🔹 Writer and lawyer Milosz Matuschek

🔹 fantastic woman and artist Mary Mauermeister - wow, clear and wise !

🔹 political activist, Founder of "Massvoll" movement, Nicolas Rimoldi

🔹 TV & Film actress Miriam Stein

🔹 Movie director Dietrich Brüggemann

🔹 historian Daniele Ganser

🔹 There is one exception in terms of heaviness: when Dr Dolores Cahill, professor for Immunology & micro biology, speaks out straight, explains, in her clear, calm yet determined voice, in which she at the end insists on a bleak future outlook for the injected for the years to come.

🔹 Immunologist / Micro biologist Dr Sucharit Bhakdi (very interesting !)

🔹 Lawyer Bart Maes

🔹 Gardner Godfried Seelen

You gonna love 💕 the end of this documentary about going into +1°C ice cold water - to strengthen your immune system. While they always told us, it will kills us... Does it, really ? What if it actually strengthens us ?


It is a profound, fantastic made documentary.

Between the interviews the film maker himself is part of the story, like an observer hovering, lingering, pondering - at the same time reflects internally about the world we live in.

I was very taken by the documentary and its quality, where the 2 hours felt well spend - and curiously - didn't even feel like 2 hour and 10 minutes !

Highly recommended
Click to expand...
Very good documentary. I felt compulsed to watch it... I normally rarely find the time and the want to sit and watch documentary for so long.
 
XPan said:
There is one exception in terms of heaviness: when Dr Dolores Cahill, professor for Immunology & micro biology, speaks out straight, explains, in her clear, calm yet determined voice, in which she at the end insists on a bleak future outlook for the injected for the years to come.
Click to expand...
Her message was indeed very concerning, but I can't believe her statement that everybody that took the mRNA jab will die in a time span of three to five years... It's a very good documentary, but it'll not buy any more audience than the already corona-skeptic crowd, exactly because of that kind of hardly-believable opinion. Or am I mistaken?
 
bjorn said:
The goal is to isolate us and replace any form of social interaction with an artificial world in which we no longer know how to authentically connect with each other.

It’s social engineering on steroids, evil and dystopian
Click to expand...
That is not only on steroids, there is already much more behind this...
It looks just like steroides to the power of 1.000 (one thousand)....
 
https://twitter.com/x/status/1529436983818440704

https://twitter.com/x/status/1532264767649374208

www.foxnews.com

Biden's Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is latest cabinet member to test positive for COVID-19

Deb Haaland, President Biden's Secretary of the Interior, tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, two days after she last visited the White House.
www.foxnews.com www.foxnews.com
Published June 1, 2022 7:34pm EDT

https://twitter.com/x/status/1531827864261246977

https://twitter.com/x/status/1532378152437170178


COVID-19 rebound possible after taking Paxlovid, but no further treatment necessary: CDC
Dr. Rochelle Walensky warns of COVID-19 rebound with Paxlovid regardless of vaccination status
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns of the potential for "COVID-19 rebound" after patients take the oral antiviral drug called Paxlovid. The treatment is allowed under emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration for adult and pediatric patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who are at risk for severe disease.

"If you take Paxlovid, you might get symptoms again," CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. "We haven't yet seen anybody who has returned with symptoms needing to go to the hospital. So, generally, a milder course."

COVID-19 rebound is a return of COVID-19 symptoms or a new positive viral test (after testing negative) between two and eight days after getting better.

Microscope view of virus.

Microscope view of virus.(iStock)

But the agency noted some people may experience the brief rebound of symptoms as part of the natural course of the disease and "independent of treatment with Paxlovid and regardless of vaccination status," according to a recent CDC Health Alert Network Health Advisory.

DOJ ASKS COURT TO REVERSE RULE LIFTING REQUIREMENT FOR COVID MASKS ON PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

The agency continues to recommend the antiviral treatment as Paxlovid helps prevent hospitalization and death due to COVID-19. It should be taken within five days of symptom onset.

"Both the recurrence of illness and positive test results improved or resolved (median of 3 days) without additional anti-COVID-19 treatment. Based on information from the case reports, COVID-19 rebound did not represent reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 or the development of resistance to Paxlovid; also, no other respiratory pathogens were identified among known cases," the CDC said.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been criticized and mocked from all sides after a series of muddled messages have baffled Americans amid a record surge in COVID-19 cases and the spread of the omicron variant.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been criticized and mocked from all sides after a series of muddled messages have baffled Americans amid a record surge in COVID-19 cases and the spread of the omicron variant.(iStock)

It’s possible to transmit the infection while experiencing COVID-19 rebound, but it’s unknown at this point how the likelihood of transmission during rebound compares to the likelihood of transmission during the initial infection.

AIR FORCE MEMBERS DENIED RELIGIOUS EXEMPTIONS TO COVID VACCINE FILE LAWSUIT TO STOP PUNISHMENT, TERMINATIONS

The agency added there is no evidence Paxlovid needs to be extended or any other antiviral therapies are needed for COVID-19 rebound, but the risk of transmission during this period can be managed by following CDC’s guidance on isolation.

For those who experience COVID-19 rebound, Walensky advised: "They should test. They should put their mask back on. And if their test is positive, restart the isolation protocol."
Click to expand...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1532358139701604354
1654187041079.png

Where Has Monkeypox Spread To? | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
www.zerohedge.com www.zerohedge.com
The monkeypox virus has sprung up in countries around the world, including in places where the virus does not usually exist.

While there are several disease outbreaks of similar size at the moment, for example hemorrhagic fever in Iraq or the bubonic plague in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, monkeypox has caught the media and the public’s attention, as it seems to be spreading in European and North American countries.

According to BNO News, the UK had the highest numbers of recorded cases in a non-endemic country, with 190 people known to have the disease, followed by 142 in Spain and 119 people in Portugal.


Source: BNO News

The US reportedly has 18 confirmed cases in California, Florida, Colorado, New York, and Utah...

1654187708362.png

Unlike Covid-19, which was a new disease in humans, monkeypox has been known to exist for the past 50 years and has made its way out of endemic countries before, albeit in singular cases which subsequently disappeared.

Experts say the situation is unusual now because of how many countries are seeing an outbreak.

Over past years, we have seen an increase in the number of cases in countries where monkeypox is endemic in wildlife.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has seen the highest number of confirmed monkeypox infections, according to the WHO, with 1,284 confirmed cases between 1 January and 8 May 2022, including 58 deaths. The next highest figures were seen in Nigeria between 1 January and 30 April 2022, with 46 cases and no deaths, and in Cameroon with 25 reported cases, including nine deaths.

As Statista's Anna Fleck notes, one of the reasons that monkeypox is believed to be spreading now is because of the population’s diminishing protection from smallpox vaccines.

Smallpox, which is in the same family as monkeypox, was eradicated in the 1980s through mass vaccination. The lack of immunity in younger generations which have not received the vaccine, and are now growing up, means that it’s increasingly common for people to get monkeypox. However, wider causes are also to blame, according to The Guardian, as deforestation and a rapidly changing climate render new land masses liveable for potentially infectious insects, force animals out of their habitats, and increase the likelihood of animals interacting with people.

Like with Covid-19, increased interconnectedness in the world means that diseases can spread around the globe more easily.
The CDC has now moved its travel advisory from Level 1 to Level 2, which is the “Alert” level, corresponding to “Practice

Enhanced Precautions.”
The CDC lists several things that travelers should avoid.

One is “Close contact with sick people, including those with skin lesions or genital lesions.” So, if you are in the habit of touching other people’s lesions while you are traveling, stop it. Of course, this is probably something that you should avoid doing at any time, even when you are not traveling and even when there isn’t a monkeypox outbreak.

A second thing that you should avoid while traveling, according to the CDC, is “Contact with dead or live wild animals such as small mammals including rodents (rats, squirrels) and non-human primates (monkeys, apes).”

The third thing to avoid is “Eating or preparing meat from wild game (bushmeat) or using products derived from wild animals from Africa (creams, lotions, powders)”.

– Forbes
Finally, The World Health Organization says it does not think reported monkeypox case around the world right now will grow into a pandemic, but officials at the United Nations-led group still acknowledge many unknowns in connect with the recent outbreak.
"At the moment, we are not concerned about a global pandemic," Dr. Rosamund Lewis said Monday during a live Q&A.
"We are concerned that individuals may acquire this infection through high-risk exposure if they don't have the information they need to protect themselves."

While anyone can get it, the dominant number of cases so far have been among men who have sex with men, as while it's not strictly a sexually transmitted disease, it is passed on through close contact with the infectious rash.
Click to expand...

Almost all coronavirus restrictions lifted in Pyongyang — Russian embassy​

It is also reported that North Korea has not filed any requests for the supply of Russian vaccines
1654188243644.png
© AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin

MOSCOW, June 2. /TASS/. The North Korean authorities remain in control of the COVID-19 situation in Pyongyang, almost all the coronavirus restrictions introduced after May 12 have been lifted in the capital, a spokesperson for the Russian embassy in North Korea told TASS.

"On May 29, we were allowed to go out to the city to shop at a grocery store near the diplomatic district. We could see that public transport had resumed operations, there were pedestrians on the streets and some shops had reopened. On May 30, the authorities lifted almost all the restrictions introduced after May 12, when a statement had been made about the Omicron coronavirus variant reaching the country," the spokesperson said.

The embassy said earlier that a complete lockdown had actually been introduced in Pyongyang amid a rise in infections.
"We saw that the situation around coronavirus patients and their treatment had been taken under control, at least in Pyongyang, and no longer worried the country’s leadership. However, restrictions remain in force in the country’s provinces," the embassy worker added.

According to the embassy, "North Korea has not filed any requests for the supply of Russian vaccines."

The North Korean authorities reported 96,610 people with fever symptoms in the past 24 hours, the total number of such cases has exceeded 3.8 mln since late April. As many as 3.6 mln patients have recovered. The number of fever-related fatalities earlier reached 70.
North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on May 12 that the country had detected its first coronavirus cases. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered a nationwide lockdown.
Click to expand...

Russia records 4,262 daily COVID-19 cases — crisis center​

Moscow’s COVID-19 cases surged by 353 over the past day versus 367 cases a day earlier
2 Jun, 10:57
MOSCOW, June 2. /TASS/. Russia’s COVID-19 case tally rose by 4,262 over the past day to 18,339,776, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Thursday.

In relative terms, the growth rate reached 0.02%.

As many as 1,965 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Russia over the past day, down 13.9% from a day earlier. The number of hospitalized patients decreased in 53 regions, while in 27 regions the figure increased. The situation remained unchanged in five regions. A day earlier, 2,281 people were rushed to hospitals.

Moscow’s COVID-19 cases surged by 353 over the past day versus 367 cases a day earlier, reaching 2,771,288, according to the anti-coronavirus crisis center. St. Petersburg’s COVID-19 cases increased by 291 over the past day versus 294 a day earlier, reaching 1,530,085.

COVID-19 recoveries​

Russia’s COVID-19 recoveries rose by 4,976 over the past day, reaching 17,749,960, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Thursday.

The share of patients discharged from hospitals has risen to 96.8% of the total number of those infected.
A day earlier, some 5,628 patients recovered.

COVID-19 death toll​

Russia’s COVID-19 death toll rose by 85 over the past day, reaching 379,285, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Thursday.

A day earlier, 83 COVID-19 deaths were registered.
The average mortality rate remained at 2.07%, according to the crisis center.
Click to expand...


Side note on the Strengthening of T-cells involving Cancer.

Oregon researchers say novel genetic experiment shrinks tough-to-treat pancreatic cancer
Thursday, June 2nd 2022 / Video
PORTLAND, Ore. — In a novel experiment, a woman with advanced pancreatic cancer saw her tumors dramatically shrink after researchers in Oregon turbocharged her own immune cells, highlighting a possible new way to someday treat a variety of cancers.

Kathy Wilkes isn’t cured but said what’s left of her cancer has shown no sign of growth since the one-time treatment last June.

“I knew that regular chemotherapy would not save my life and I was going for the save,” said Wilkes, of Ormond Beach, Florida, who tracked down a scientist thousands of miles away and asked that he attempt the experiment.

The research, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, explores a new method of harnessing the immune system to create “living drugs” able to seek and destroy tumors.

“It’s really exciting. It’s the first time this sort of treatment has worked in a very difficult-to-treat cancer type,” said Dr. Josh Veatch of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, who wasn’t involved with the experiment.

It’s just a first step and far more research is needed, he cautioned -- noting that Wilkes is one of only two people known to have tried this exact approach and it failed in the other patient.

Still, Veatch said the findings are “a proof of principle that this is possible” and that other researchers also are testing this type of immunotherapy.

T cells are key immune soldiers, able to kill off diseased cells -- but too often cancer evades them. Doctors already have learned how to strengthen T cells to fight some types of leukemia and lymphoma. They add an artificial receptor to patients’ T cells so the immune fighters can recognize a marker on the outside of blood cancer cells, and attack.

But that CAR-T therapy doesn’t work against more common solid tumors, which don’t carry that same danger marker.

The new twist: At Oregon’s Providence Cancer Institute, researcher Eric Tran genetically engineered Wilkes’ T cells so they could spot a mutant protein that's hidden inside her tumor cells -- and only there, not in healthy cells.

1654185500751.png
abeb5661-302f-4fb1-a8e4-b51bcdc046bd-medium16x9_AP22152719395830.jpg
This photo provided by the Providence Cancer Institute of Oregon in May 2022 shows Kathy Wilkes of Ormond Beach, Fla. Wilkes, with advanced pancreatic cancer, saw her tumors dramatically shrink after researchers in Oregon turbocharged her own immune cells, highlighting a possible new way to someday treat a variety of cancers. (Providence Cancer Institute of Oregon via AP)

How? Certain molecules sit on the surface of cells and give the immune system a sneak peek of what proteins are inside. If a complex receptor on the T cell recognizes both the person's genetically distinct “HLA” molecule and that one of the protein snippets embedded in it is the targeted mutant, that immune fighter can latch on.

It’s an approach known as T cell receptor, or TCR, therapy. Tran stressed that the research remains highly experimental but said Wilkes’ remarkable response “provides me with optimism that we’re on the right track.”

Dr. Eric Rubin, the New England Journal's top editor, said the study raises the possibility of eventually being able to target multiple cancer-causing mutations.

“We're talking about the chance to distinguish tumor cells from non-tumor cells in a way that we never could before,” he said.

Wilkes underwent chemotherapy, radiation and surgery for her pancreatic cancer. Later doctors discovered new tumors in her lungs -- the pancreatic cancer had spread, a stage when there is no good treatment.

Wilkes knew researchers were testing immunotherapy to fight different hard-to-treat tumors, and a biopsy showed a specific mutation was fueling her cancer. Her search led to Tran, who in 2016 had co-authored a study about a subset of T cells that naturally harbored receptors able to spot that same so-called KRAS mutation.

Wilkes also had the right type of HLA molecule. So Tran and his colleague Dr. Rom Leidner, an oncologist, got Food and Drug Administration permission to reprogram her T cells to bear the special mutant-fighting receptor.

They culled T cells from Wilkes’ blood, genetically engineered them in the lab and then grew billions of copies. Six months after a transfusion of the altered cells, her tumors had shrunk by 72% -- and Wilkes said recent checkups show her disease remains stable.

Tran said it’s not clear why the experiment failed in another patient, although lessons from that case that prompted some changes to Wilkes’ treatment.

The Oregon team has opened a small study to further test TCR therapy for patients with incurable cancers fueled by what Tran calls “hot-spot” mutations.
Click to expand...
 

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