Does one vaccine prevent 12 types of cancer? Give me a break!
A "high price" vaccine that can prevent 12 types of cancer is said to be quietly circulating among the wealthy.
Some media recently reported that Hong Kong MDX Medical Group released the "DCV Cancer Vaccine", which can prevent more than 12 types of cancer, including prostate cancer, breast cancer, and lung cancer.
Is there such a good thing? The reporter of Science and Technology Daily immediately connected Zhi Xiuyi, the director of the Science Popularization Department of the China Anti-Cancer Association and a professor at Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University. Hear what he said.
Is it pseudoscience? Try these three "miracle mirrors"
"What kind of cancer can be cured? From this ad word, it can basically be judged as pseudoscience." Zhi Xiuyi told the Science and Technology Daily reporter, not to mention anything else, as for lung cancer alone, there are small cell lung cancer and non-small It is divided into cell lung cancer; non-small cell lung cancer includes squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and large cell carcinoma; some cancers are derived from epithelial cells, and some cancers come from the mesoderm layer... just to prevent lung cancer. None of them are possible, let alone prevent 12 types of cancer together.
This characteristic of malignant tumors is academically called "heterogeneity", and it can be roughly understood that even if they are divided into the same type of tumor, they may be completely different. Academic articles have shown that there are two types of heterogeneity: one is that the tumor mutations of the same patient's tumor cells are different at different stages of tumor development; the other is that different patients have the same tumor, but the "same" Not necessarily the same, just the same phenotype, does not mean the same genotype.
Zhang Xuemin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, used a very vivid analogy to explain "heterogeneity" at an academic seminar. He said: The genome in the human body is like taking a disk and dropping it down a million times. No two fragments are the same, no two tumor patients have the same mutation. The human body has 3 billion base pairs, and tens of millions of changes may not cause tumors. The main problem in the treatment of cancer is to find which one is the driving mutation, so that targeted therapy is possible. At present, scientists are using big data to find the most critical driver mutation genes (can be understood as core components). According to clinical data and proportions, thousands of tumor driver genes have been found.
It can be seen that, as mentioned in the "DCV Cancer Vaccine" product description, controlling the broad-spectrum WT1 gene can be prevented (assuming that the injected substance can regulate the gene) is currently impossible, so-called "universal gene" It is purely false.
Therefore, "omnipotence, cure all diseases" is the first "miraculous mirror", especially for malignant tumors with complicated mechanism, it is even more impossible to "one enemy to ten".
"This kind of pseudoscience has another characteristic, there is no specific research institution and research event. If it is a real thing, it should have specific scientific research projects and scientific research results data, and it should be carried out at international or domestic cancer conferences. Show." Zhi Xiuyi explained, "If it is clearly the work of a certain scientific research institute or scientific research team in a certain university in the United States, and a series of experimental studies have been carried out, then other teams of scientists should be able to verify this research, or in The research results and data will be introduced at the ASCO Global Oncology Congress or the CSCO Meeting of the Domestic Oncology Congress."
The Hong Kong MDX Medical Group released the "DCV Cancer Vaccine" without disclosing any clinical trial data, how to advance the relevant clinical verification, how effective the third-phase clinical research is, whether there are related papers published in academic journals, and which scientific research teams have participated in the research work . To put it bluntly, this result is like being produced out of thin air and cannot be "traced".
"Generating out of thin air, unable to trace the source" is the second "zhaojing mirror", and "commercial manipulation, profit-making hype" is the third "zhaojing mirror".
"Although the creation of a fake news is out of thin air, it must be driven by huge economic benefits." Zhi Xiuyi said that the development and innovation of anti-tumor new drugs requires a lot of capital, especially to the clinical verification stage. Billions.
At this time, the concept of speculation, raising the stock price, and mobilizing funds have become a high trick for many capital players, and fake news has also become one of the springboards for them to "play" the capital market. As long as the sales performance and followers occupy the head, this wave of operation may attract investment and become the so-called "model" of business manipulation. As analyzed by the media, its commercial nature is "cutting leeks."
Don't let pseudoscience "fire up" the tumor vaccine
This is a rumor about the lies of tumor vaccines, but "tumor vaccines" are really new biotechnologies in recent years.
People are familiar with: cervical cancer vaccine, hepatitis B vaccine and so on.
"In principle, the principle of preventive tumor vaccines is to prevent microbial infections from inducing tumors. For example, cervical cancer vaccines prevent polyoma virus; hepatitis B vaccines prevent liver cancer; prevent EB virus, prevent nasopharyngeal cancer; prevent Helicobacter pylori, "Preventing gastric cancer." Li Zhongming, editor-in-chief of the "New Contemporary Vaccine" (first edition), who had served as a review in the US FDA, explained to the reporter of Science and Technology Daily: The current preventive tumor vaccine must be related to microorganisms, and only therapeutic vaccines are aimed at tumor .
Focus! Tumor vaccines are divided into preventive and therapeutic, and are injected into healthy people and tumor patients, respectively.
Preventive tumor vaccines are only aimed at tumors caused by viruses and other microorganisms. Because they can clarify the formation mechanism of tumors, they can be prevented. A variety of vaccines have been launched.
Therapeutic tumor vaccine, there is currently a tumor vaccine for the treatment of prostate cancer in the United States, and many therapeutic products are in clinical trials.
Since therapeutic tumor vaccines are targeted at cancer patients and are therapeutic, why are they also called vaccines?
Li Hangwen, founder and CEO of Microbiology, a leading tumor vaccine company in China, explained to reporters from Science and Technology Daily, "Tumor vaccine is actually a type of immunotherapy. For example, we use mRNA to express tumor antigens. Tumor antigens are like a marker (wearing a red hat), It reminds and mobilizes the police (immune system) to catch the thief, and the person wearing the red hat is the thief. So, the immune system can find the thief based on the red hat and attack the tumor."
Because the "portrait" allows the immune system to recognize tumors, the principle is consistent with the principle of the vaccine, so this immunotherapy method is also called "tumor vaccine."
"This is different from the way in which chemical drugs and antibody drugs introduce foreign aid to combat forces. Tumor vaccines completely rely on the body's own immune response to eliminate tumors." Li Hangwen said that once immunotherapy is effective, it generally does not produce drug resistance. The system will "intelligently follow up" until the tumor is "thrown away". In addition, immunotherapy will produce immune memory. When the body encounters the same pathogen attack again, it will quickly produce an immune response and eliminate the pathogen. With traditional methods, it is easy to develop drug resistance, and the tumor will "flee". If it relapses, it may be more dangerous.