An Israeli biotechnology company says that it will cure cancer in one year. Here's why it's not true

An Israeli biotechnology company recently said it could treat cancer within a year. Different media outlets have written about history, generating enthusiasm, but there is a critical problem. There is no evidence to support the claims.

The researchers, belonging to Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies, were originally interviewed by The Jerusalem Post and made quite bold statements, to say the least. The story was then taken up by the New York Post, which did not ask some vital questions.

"We believe that we will offer in a year a comprehensive treatment against cancer," said the researchers. "Our cancer treatment will be effective from the first day, last a few weeks and will have no side effects or minimal side effects at a cost well below most other treatments on the market."

The idea behind the research is certainly interesting: it apparently uses several peptides in combination with a toxin to prevent cancer cells from functioning properly. Researchers say this approach can target multiple cancer receptors at the same time. However, they do not give much detail, and even if basic science seems plausible, the claims of researchers pose a glaring problem.

First, they seem to suggest that cancer is a disease that requires a unique treatment. This is not true. Cancer is actually a generic term for more than 200 diseases. Different types require different treatments and success can vary from one patient to another.

"A miracle cure for cancer is extremely unlikely," said Dr. David Grimes, a cancer researcher. Twitter. "It would be like expecting the same methods that fix your dishwasher to help your car run. This is also why we have many treatment modalities for cancer, from radiation therapy to immunotherapy. "

Another major problem with what researchers say is that they only did experiments on mice. This means that they are very far from using their approach to treat people. They must go through a number of clinical trials on humans to test the safety and effectiveness of their treatment.

"Clinical trials take years and have not started yet," Professor Henning Walczak, head of the department of cancer biology at the Cancer Institute of University College London, told IFLScience. "In fact, they are still in the preclinical stage – they are doing" the first experiments of exploratory mice "as they say themselves.This means that they are probably still in two years before starting clinical trials, since it is not question have already worked on the production process of their so-called drug ".