Cruel and misleading: a complaint for a cure for cancer by Israeli scientists

An Israeli biotechnology company said this week that its scientists had developed a cure for cancer and would make it available within a year, attracting the attention of the international community – and a good deal of skepticism.

The Chairman of the Board of Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd. (AEBi), founded in 2000 by the technology incubator ITEK Weizmann, told the Jerusalem Post that "the treatment of the cancer society will be effective from the first day, last a few weeks and will result in little or no side effects at a cost well below most other treatments available on the market. "

"We believe that we will propose in a year a comprehensive treatment against cancer," said Dan Aridor in the Israeli daily, adding that "our solution will be both generic and personal".

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The new development has been picked up by many media publications in Israel and around the world. At the same time, AEBi did not provide any evidence of its findings and claimed that it did not have the funds to publish publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

But the company claims that its developed treatment, MuTaTo (multi-target toxin), is a new attack on several cancerous cells using peptides, which yielded "consistent and reproducible" results during the "first exploratory mouse experiment, which inhibited human cancer cells. growth and had no effect on healthy mouse cells, in addition to several in vitro tests, "reported the Jerusalem Post.

Red flags everywhere

Victoria Forster, a cancer researcher and postdoctoral fellow at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) of Toronto, Canada, wrote in a Forbes article that the first "red flag" for her was a claim by Dr. Ilan Morad , CEO of AEBi on what the treatment could achieve.

"Instead of attacking receptors one at a time, we attack receptors three at a time – even cancer can not mutate three receptors at the same time," Morad told The Jerusalem Post.

"This is categorically wrong," wrote Forster. "Cancers can have from one to tens of thousands of DNA mutations in their genome, most of them being the" receptors "that Morad vaguely mentions.A key principle of simultaneous use Several chemotherapy agents involve fighting cancer cells in several different ways to reduce the risk of resistance, but many cancers become resistant to these treatment protocols, so Morad's logic is extremely fragile. "

In addition, the Israeli society's claim that its treatment will work for all types of cancer is also a "huge red flag," she said.

"There are basically more than 200 types of cancer, and of these, many other subtypes. For there to be one, it is very unlikely that one will "cure" cancer universally to overcome all these differences, "Forster said.

An Australian cancer researcher went further, accusing the company of "selling unicorns" and calling to suspend it "to dry for making such cruel and deceptive claims".

Cancer biologist Darren Saunders, a cancer biologist, said the AEBi treatment was "essentially the Fyre Cancer Treatment Festival". The Fyre Festival was widely promoted as the "Luxury Music Festival" to be held in the Bahamas in 2017. It was soon exposed as a fraud. There are currently two documentaries on the saga.

"Irresponsible and even cruel"

The more starker warnings and direct convictions were not far behind.

Dr. J. Leonard Lichtenfeld, deputy chief physician of the National Office of the American Cancer Society, wrote in an article on his blog titled "A cure for cancer? Not so fast" that, if Israeli scientists " working with an interesting approach to interfere with the ability of cancer cells to function ", they provided very limited information that" has not been published in the scientific literature and where it could be examined ", support and / or criticism from knowledgeable peers. "

He added that the initial AEBi experiment on mice in clinical trials "is not a well-established program of experiments that could better define how it works – and may not work – when it moves from the laboratory to the laboratory. clinical."

"The gap between a successful mouse experiment and the effective and beneficial application of exciting laboratory concepts to help cancer patients at the bedside is, in fact, a long and perilous journey, fraught with unforeseen obstacles. and unforeseen, "wrote Lichtenfeld, throwing cold water the claim that treatment would be available within a year.

Cancer cells. Photo via DepositPhotos

Dr. Benjamin Neel, professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine and director of the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Health, told ABC11 News that "although we can always find something new, it is very unlikely that a company has developed something that will cure all cancers in one year. I mean, it's just not plausible. "

"They did not provide any details on this approach. They did not publish the data. And yet, they make it extraordinary, and according to my choice, highly irresponsible and even cruel (towards cancer patients) to cure cancer within a year, "Neel told Forbes.

"One should never say never in science, but I think it's highly unlikely that we would see a single miracle cure for cancer. We do not have a single miracle solution for infectious diseases – different infections require different antibiotics and even then antibiotic resistance develops. Cancer is not a single disease – its multiple diseases, each caused by different combinations of genetic modifications within different types of target cells. We already know how to cure many forms of cancer, including all these treatments are different, "he said.

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As health professionals and researchers, hear about "new cancer treatments" with little or no evidence and "ask questions about everything from baking soda to lemons healing cancer, often from patients with cancer. of a desperate cancer or their families "is not a new scenario, writes Forster. She said it was "heartbreaking" to see cancer patients turn to crowdfunding "to raise money for these unproven cancer treatments."

"Our hopes are always on the side of new advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer," wrote Lichtenfeld, but we should also be very cautious.

At the same time, Morad defended the company's findings in an interview with The Times of Israel, saying the company wanted to focus on research rather than fund publishing its findings.

"If we were a big company with a lot of money, that [publication] would be the first thing we would do, "he said. "If I have $ 100,000, what should I spend? Advance research and find more and more targeting peptides, or do many experiments to write an article? What would you do if you had to choose?

Blue and white cancer research

Israeli scientists and researchers have been at the forefront of in-depth studies of cancer and cancer treatment in recent decades.

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Israeli universities, medical centers, hospitals and laboratories have taken the initiative to develop innovative care plans and undertake sophisticated research to advance the understanding and knowledge of cancer, for which there is no evidence known cure.

Many Israeli startups in the biotechnology sector have also been at the forefront of innovative solutions for early detection, clinical pathology systems and therapies.