About The Disease
Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display 1) uncontrolled growth beyond the normal limits of cell reproduction, 2) invasion and destruction of adjacent tissues, and sometimes 3) metastasis or spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood. These three properties of malignant cancers differentiate them from benign tumors which are self-limited and do not invade or metastasize. Most cancers form a tumor, but some, like leukemia, do not1.
Cancer may affect people at all ages but the risk for most varieties of cancer increases with age. In the United States, cancer accounts for nearly 1 in 4 deaths. According to the American Cancer Society about 569,490 Americans will die of Cancer this year, making the death toll a staggering 1,500 people per day2. Globally and on average, 7.5 million people die of Cancer every year. There are about 11.7 million people living with cancer in the United States3.
Nearly all cancers are caused by abnormalities in the genetic material of the transformed cells. These abnormalities may be due to the effect of carcinogens, such as tobacco smoke, radiation, chemicals, or infectious agents. Other cancer-promoting genetic abnormalities may be randomly acquired through errors in DNA replication, or are inherited, and thus are present in all cells from birth. The heritability of cancers is usually affected by complex interactions between carcinogens and the host’s genome. New aspects of the genetics of cancer pathogenesis, such as DNA methylation and microRNAs are increasingly recognized as important.
Conventional Method of Treatment
Cancer can be treated today by surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, monoclonal antibody therapy, or other methods. The choice of therapy depends upon the location and grade of the tumor and the stage of the disease, as well as the general state of the patient. A number of experimental cancer treatments are also under development. Complete removal of the cancer without damage to the rest of the body is the goal of treatment. Sometimes this can be accomplished by surgery, but the propensity of cancers to invade adjacent tissue or to spread to distant sites by microscopic metastasis often limits its effectiveness. The effectiveness of chemotherapy is often limited by toxicity to other tissues in the body. Radiation damages normal tissue4.
The Halberd Corporation Solution
Potential for Sequential Dialysis Technique: We intend to develop a methodology for treating cancer which is completely different from the standard treatments of chemotherapy and radiation therapy that are now being utilized. Due to the fact that all presently known treatments directly inject chemotherapeutic agents into the body of a patient and/or directly irradiate the patient, there is a very high level of adverse side effects, such as kidney failure, encephalopathy, neuropathy, heart toxicity, and other severe morbidities.
We intend to develop our intellectual property applications for utilizing a proprietary methodology in which the cancer patient’s blood is utilized to remove metastatic cancer cells. This is accomplished by sequentially dialyzing the patient’s blood extra-corporeally. The method will utilize designer antibodies to physically remove the pathophysiologic basis of the disease. For example, in sepsis there will be the physical attachment and removal of bacteria. In cancer treatment, there will be the physical attachment and then physical removal of metastasizing cancer cells. There will also be the physical attachment, and removal of those proteins which allow cancer to metastasize successfully and then thrive-such as angiogenic proteins. To date there has been no specific clinical evidence to support a conclusion that this treatment is effective for premetastatic or metastatic cancers. We hope to demonstrate this in future lab and animal experiments. Through this process, the cancer can be targeted through a number of innovative techniques being developed by the Company.
This extra-corporeal methodology for cancer treatment has an enormous potentiality for decreasing the side effects of chemotherapy and irradiation treatment in cancer patients. Our methodology may also increase the efficacy of cancer treatment by allowing for much higher dosages of anti-neoplastic agents to be used through this extra-corporeal methodology. Due to the fact that this methodology completely avoids exposure of the patient’s body to these anti-cancer agents, dosages that cannot be normally tolerated can now be utilized in fighting the cancer.