Theralase Technologies (TSX:V.TLT, Stock Forum), a Toronto-based designer, developer, manufacturer and marketer of patented super-pulsed laser technologies, announced results today from pre-clinical trials carried out at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, regarding its flagship Photo Dynamic Compound (PDC).
According to the news release, the PDC was intended for the destruction of cancer, but also demonstrated the ability to render animals immune to repeated exposures of the same cancer.
The release went on to illustrate, “In this latest research, the same mice who received the initial, successful Photo Dynamic Therapy (PDT) were re-injected with the same number of colon cancer cells, 13 to 23 days later. With no further treatment intervention, mice in these experiments, demonstrated either a small tumour regrowth, which quickly regressed, or in the majority of animals, no tumour regrowth at all, suggesting a short-term immune-mediated (immune "memory response") tumour rejection.”
The PDT treatment was then taken further as these same animals were injected a third time with an additional 350,000 colon cancer cells at 10 months post PDT treatment with none of the animals showing any sign of tumor regrowth, even at three months post followup.
The treatment was further confirmed with a control group of age-matched mice with no history of tumor exposure or PDT treatment were injected with the same amount of colon cancer cells and as a result, the majority of these mice died within one month following the injection.
Company Chief Science Officer, Dr. Arkady Mandel, commented, “This is one of the first preclinical trials to show that it's possible to generate a long-term anticancer memory response. For the first time in our research program, we have demonstrated that NIR PDT leads not only to long standing clearance of colon cancer cells, but also provides long lasting protection against further tumour cell challenge in young (eight to ten weeks old) and older (ten to eleven month old) mice.”
Dr. Lothar Lilge PhD, Professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto and Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, added, “We are delighted that we were able to partner in the preclinical research for this ground breaking discovery. The ability to effectively destroy cancer and simultaneously stimulate the immune system to target micro metastasis beyond the initial treatment volume is necessary to provide long term disease control.”
Company president and CEO, Roger Dumoulin-White, stated, “If our PDC technology is proven effective in cancer patients, the implications of this discovery are nothing short of game changing for both Theralase and for cancer patients. The ability to destroy the original cancer and also program the body's immune system to prevent its recurrence, after only a single treatment, is nothing short of miraculous.”
He then added, “Born a technical person at heart, I have always marvelled at the complexity of the human body and regarded it as the single most complex and intricate machine ever devised. The opportunity to bring technology to market that could help preserve the integrity of the human body and destroy such a deadly disease as cancer, fills me with hope and a great sense of accomplishment.”
Then he finally concluded, “The scientific, clinical and engineering teams at UHN, Acadia and Theralase are all fully dedicated to bringing the Theralase anti-cancer PDC technology to the forefront of clinical success, as soon as possible, in order to help eradicate the world of cancer and assist cancer patients stricken with this deadly disease.”
Theralase was in the news recently when the company’s anti-cancer technology was validated in a prestigious US chemistry publication.
Shares rose 64.00% on the news to $0.41 per share.
Currently there are 66.6m outstanding shares with a market cap of $27.3 million.
FULL DISCLOSURE:Theralase Technologies is a Stockhouse Publishing client.