Author: Shoshanna Solomon / Source: The Times Of Israel
Foreign cancer specialists are criticizing claims by a team of Israeli researchers who say they have developed a concept that will pave the way to a cure for cancer, with one US expert dismissing it as likely “another in a long line of spurious, irresponsible and ultimately cruel false promises for cancer patients.
”The CEO of the company behind the research told The Times of Israel on Tuesday that it has not published its research in medical journals, as is the norm, because it “can’t afford” to do so, but that the results of its pre-clinical trials have been “very good.” Several Israeli experts contacted by The Times of Israel declined to comment on the claim, some precisely because they were not familiar with the research.
“We are working on a complete cure for cancer,” said Ilan Morad, the CEO and founder of the Nes Ziona-based startup Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd. (AEBi), in an interview with The Times of Israel on Tuesday, echoing claims the firm made to the Jerusalem Post earlier this week. “We still have a long way to go, but in the end we believe we will have a cure for all kinds of cancer patients and with very few side effects.”
Morad added that “in a year’s time or so” the firm could start treating patients as part of clinical trials it hopes to begin if it raises the funds. The family of molecules it has developed, which are at the core of its ostensible path to a care, have been tested in Israeli pre-clinical trials on human cancer cells in a lab and on mice, Morad said, and found effective in targeting common cancers like lung cancer, colon cancer and head and neck cancers.
Several hospitals and experts in Israel refused to comment on the claims, some noting that they had no direct information on the research. Other experts, overseas, sounded stark warnings about the researchers’ claims.
Dr. Leonard Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer for the national office of the American Cancer Society, noted on Tuesday that while the Israeli scientists had worked “with an interesting approach to interfering with the ability of cancer cells to function,” their research has “apparently not been published in the scientific literature where it would be subject to review, support and/or criticism from knowledgeable peers.”
“We all have hope that a cure for cancer can be found and found quickly. It is certainly possible this approach may be work,” he wrote in a blog post entitled “A cure for cancer? Not so fast.”
“However, as experience has taught us so many times, the gap from a successful mouse experiment to effective, beneficial application of exciting laboratory concepts to helping cancer patients at the bedside is in fact a long and treacherous journey, filled with unforeseen and unanticipated obstacles.”
“It will likely take some time to prove the benefit of this new…
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