T-Stim™: Reverse Engineering A Cure

By analyzing the curative immune response that occurs in BMT protocols, scientists at Immunovative developed a biological drug called T-Stim™ designed to create the same immunological mechanisms which enable the GVT effect to disable tumor immune avoidance mechanisms and kill widely disseminated tumors to be stimulated in the host immune system rather than the grafted immune system.  The biological drug is derived from precursors found in the circulation of a normal donor.  These precursors are purified, differentiated and expanded outside the body and then frozen until needed.  When infused into the blood of cancer patients these special cells create a highly inflammatory environment which serves to disable tumor avoidance mechanisms.  Because the infused cells are intentionally mis-matched to the patient, the host immune system “awakens” to the danger signals produced and rises up to both reject the infused cells and kill the now weakened tumors.

This new approach to cancer treatment provides an anti-tumor effect without the problems associated with allogeneic BMT:

• no matched donor requirement (only 1/3 of patients can find a matched donor);
• no requirement for chemotherapy/radiation conditioning prior to treatment;
• no GVHD (which is lethal in 40-60% of patients); and
• no requirement for immunosuppression to prevent GVHD (makes patients susceptible to opportunistic infections)