What initially is designed to be the last line of defense for late stage cancer patients could actually prove to be a cancer killer on a much broader scale.

TVAX Biomedical is conducting Phase III clinical trials using TVAX immunotherapy on Stage IV brain and kidney cancer patients. These patients typically have exhausted traditional treatments and are left with few alternatives.

While chemotherapy takes a “nuclear bomb” approach, killing multiple cells in the body, including the patient’s immune system, TVAX’s treatment uses the patient’s cancer cells to kill the cancer.

During the treatment, the patient’s cancer cells are removed and sent to the TVAX lab where a vaccine is developed. This vaccine, containing the patient’s modified cancer cells, is injected back into the patient. The patient’s immune system is then able to recognize the previously ignored cancer cells as foreign bodies and attack the cancer through the body’s “killer” T-cell response.

The second phase of the treatment is more wizardry on the part of the TVAX scientists. They aim to increase the number of killer T-cells by 10 to the 10th power, or 10,000,000,000. Ultimately, it is this combined cancer treatment that will kill the cancer. Initial results have proven quite hopeful, and the FDA has allowed the company to progress to Phase III trials. KBA funding supports this commercialization process.