The Hadassah University Medical Center is participating in a clinical trial of a vaccine that “trains” the immune system to seek and destroy malignant cells that have invaded the body.
The vaccine, entitled ImMucin and developed in Israel by Vaxil BioTherapeutics, does not prevent cancer from invading; it does, however, activate and enhance the body’s natural immune system so it will destroy cancer cells that, for example, linger following cancer surgery. The vaccine is currently being tested against multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood. The drug is based on a drug platform called VaxHit, which can be tailored to treat not only 90 percent of cancers, but also diseases such as tuberculosis, according to Vaxil’s Chief Executive Officer, Julian Levy.
