New Immunological Therapy Proposed for Cancer

An innovative immunological therapy that attacks carcinogenic cells in humans by increasing the body's anti-tumour response was presented in Santiago city in Chile.

The therapy is in the pre-clinical stage and its creator, Claudio Acuna, a researcher at the University of Santiago, has said the therapy will soon be patented in the United States, Xinhua news agency reported.

Acuna said the aim "is to generate a vaccine for people who already are showing signs of cancer which will allow them to improve their immunological response against tumours. We do not expect to reverse the cancer but offer an alternative".

"We need to wait for patents approval before progressing to the other stages. Our project is focused on improving the quality of life of the patients in the long term and to generate a therapy that is supplementary to the conventional treatments."

This new method could decrease global medical care costs by 70 percent in comparison with similar therapies.

"This immunotherapy is available for a wide spectrum of patients with breast, skin, lung, colon, and prostate cancer in the advanced stages," Acuna said.

"It will not have any side-effects and in terms of cost, once it's marketed, it will not cost more than $750 (roughly Rs. 48,000)."

Every year, more than 10 million people in the world are diagnosed with new cases of cancer, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2012, 8.2 million people died from the disease.