Awesome news

I met with my doctor from Germany yesterday. I never thought I would or could get excited about anything that has to do with medicine or treatments, but she told me about awesome news coming out of Europe about cancer and immune system treatments:

"Immunotherapy with the trifunctional antibody removal

leads to significant elimination of tumor cells

from malignant ascites in ovarian cancer"

That was the headline from the results of the first phase of a study in 2005. After phases 2 and 3 were completed, the results were so amazing that last April, the European Commission approved a drug called Removab for the treatment of malignant ascites. A few weeks later, Removab went on sale in Germany and was subsequently introduced to other European countries.

Removab is the first of a number of new drugs that use the body’s own immune system to help fight the tumor cells spread by “malignant ascites,” a condition in which fluid containing cancer cells collects in the abdomen.  It’s common in ovarian, pancreatic, colon, lung, breasts and gastric cancers.

How do I know? I looked it up.

Here are a couple of site to read so you can see for yourself:

“Trifunctional Antibody Catumaxomab Kills Cancer Stem Cells”

“Removab Approval: Proof-of-Concept for Technology Transfer in Germany”