Dr. Michael Har-Noy Reports Positive Results Breast Cancer Treatment Results At ASCO At the ASCO Annual Conference in 2012, Dr. Michael Har-Noy, CEO of Immunovative Therapies, Ltd. reported impressive survival statistics in a subgroup of patients with HER2+ breast cancer. Dr. Michael Har-Noy said that the immune mechanism stemming from an allogeneic bone marrow transplant is very effective in eliminating metastatic tumor cells in spite of the cancer’s immune avoidance mechanisms. He adds, however, that this immune killing mechanism is linked to the deadly graft versus host side effect (GVHD) and is therefore of limited clinical utility.
Dr. Michael Har-Noy has engineered a proprietary drug, AlloStimTM which was designed to mimic a host anti-tumor mechanism while avoiding GVHD related side effects. Dr. Michael Har-Noy details how AlloStimTM was recently evaluated in an FDA-approved phase I/II study of 42 metastatic cancer patients with different tumor cell types. Most study patients had improved survival and tumor lysis without significant toxicity. Traditional RECIST grading overestimated the size of metastatic lesions, as responding tumors became swollen and seemed to enlarge when evaluated by computed tomographic scan. Dr. Michael Har-Noy noted that interleukin 12 (IL-12) levels were an accurate predictor of survival. Half of the patients were positive for IL-12 lived a median of 211 days. The IL12 negative patients survived a median of 131 days. Nine of 16 patients with metastatic breast cancer were positive for IL-12. The five-patient HER2+ subset was fully IL-12 positive and had a median survival of 416 days, while the HER2- patients lived only 134 days. Dr. Michael Har-Noy said that HER2+ cancers spread quicker and have a poorer outcome than HER2- lesions. The dramatic response to AlloStimTM in the HER2+ patients may have resulted from large amounts of anti-HER2+ antibodies found in this subgroup. Dr. Michael Har-Noy noted that the allogeneic cell therapy may augment the capacity of these antibodies to kill malignant cells. Please refer to the abstract on the official ASCO site by clicking here. Dr. Michael HarNoy is conducting more studies of his biologic compounds in Bangkok, Thailand. He is planning a pivotal Phase II/III trial of AlloStimTM in the treatment of KRAS gene positive colon cancer, for which there is no good third line treatment. Please visit www.immunocare.net for more details.