angelburst29 said:
Efranat, a young Israeli company, which believes in GcMAF
_http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2014/11/21/israels-efranat-raises-4-5-million-to-cure-cancer/
Efranat Ltd. is developing an immunotherapy treatment approach for cancer, based on a glycoprotein named GcMAF (Globulin component Macrophage Activating Factor).
There's an article now surfacing - that an Israeli Drug Firm have released a drug by the name "Keytruda" which has been used to help cure former U.S. President Jimmy Carter of Melanoma. The drug uses the body's own immune system to fight Cancer cells, much like GcMAF. The FDA approved Keytruda in September 2014. What better way, to jump start "sales" of a trial drug - then to get a former President to claim a cure, while still under going treatment?
Israeli breakthrough helped cure Jimmy Carter’s cancer
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-breakthrough-drug-helped-cure-jimmy-carters-cancer/
Sunday Dec. 6, 2015 - Researched and tested at Tel Hashomer Sheba Medical Center,
Keytruda fights tumors using the body’s natural immune system.
An Israeli-tested drug that tackles cancer through sophisticated manipulations of the body’s natural immune system was key in helping rid former US president Jimmy Carter of life-threatening tumors that developed after he was diagnosed with melanoma earlier this year.
Researched in Israel by Professor Jacob Schachter of the Ella Institute for melanoma treatment and research at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Keytruda is part of a promising new class of drugs called immunotherapies, which harness the body’s immune system to help fight cancer.
The US-based Merck pharmaceutical company’s injectable biotech drug works by blocking a protein found in certain tumors called PD-1, which inhibits the body’s natural response to cancer cells.
Carter, 91, announced Sunday that doctors found no evidence of the four lesions discovered on his brain this summer and no signs of new cancer growth. He revealed in August that he had been diagnosed with melanoma and had begun treatment, including surgery to remove part of his liver, targeted radiation therapy and doses of a recently approved drug to help his immune system seek out any new cancer cells.
“I will continue to receive regular 3-week immunotherapy treatments of pembrolizumab,” he said. That drug goes by the name Keytruda commercially.
Former-U.S. President Carter’s Cancer Cured by Israeli Drug
http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/1.690966
Keytruda, a new cancer drug that was researched and tested at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, helped former President Jimmy Carter overcome his life-threatening case of melanoma.
Carter announced on Sunday that the four cancerous lesions on his brain were gone and doctors had found no new signs of cancer growth.
He also said that he will continue taking
one of a group of new so-called “immunotherapy” drugs, which aim to help a patient’s immune system defeat the spread of cancer.
Keytruda helps immune system cells identify and destroy tumor cells, which usually pass by them undetected. This bolstering of the immune system is a break from the theory behind chemotherapy, which is designed to destroy cancerous cells but also destroys healthy ones.
Carter, 91, who announced in August that he had stage 4 melanoma that had spread across his body, has said that he has experienced no side effects to Keytruda.
“The new drug creates real potential for curing one of the deadliest forms of cancer, at the negligible cost of light and tolerable side effects,” Jacob Schachter, a professor and head of the Ella Institute for Melanoma at the Sheba Medical Center, told Ynet last year. “Among doctors, too, the scope of the breakthrough has yet to be digested.”
However, cancer experts told NBC News that it is not completely clear whether the drug cured Carter on its own, and that advanced forms of the cancer have been known to disappear and return. The former commander-in-chief was also treated with traditional radiation and had a tumor on his liver removed.
FDA News Release - FDA approves Keytruda for advanced melanoma - September 4, 2014
First PD-1 blocking drug to receive agency approval
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm412802.htm
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today granted accelerated approval to Keytruda (pembrolizumab) for treatment of patients with advanced or unresectable melanoma who are no longer responding to other drugs.
Keytruda is the first approved drug that blocks a cellular pathway known as PD-1, which restricts the body’s immune system from attacking melanoma cells. Keytruda is intended for use following treatment with ipilimumab, a type of immunotherapy. For melanoma patients whose tumors express a gene mutation called BRAF V600, Keytruda is intended for use after treatment with ipilimumab and a BRAF inhibitor, a therapy that blocks activity of BRAF gene mutations.
The FDA action was taken under the agency’s
accelerated approval program [...]. This program provides earlier patient access to promising new drugs while the company conducts confirmatory clinical trials.
Keytruda’s efficacy was established in 173 clinical trial participants with advanced melanoma [...] the recommended dose of 2 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) or at a higher dose of 10 mg/kg.
The most common side effects of Keytruda were fatigue, cough, nausea, itchy skin (pruritus), rash, decreased appetite, constipation, joint pain (arthralgia) and diarrhea. Keytruda also has the potential for severe immune-mediated side effects. In the 411 participants with advanced melanoma, severe immune-mediated side effects involving healthy organs, including the lung, colon, hormone-producing glands and liver, occurred uncommonly.
Keytruda is marketed by Merck & Co., based in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.
