In a breakthrough development, the Israeli company Vaxil BioTherapeutics has formulated a therapeutic cancer vaccine, now in clinical trials at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem. If all goes well, the vaccine could be available in six years, to administer on a regular basis—not only to help treat cancer but in order to keep the disease from recurring.

The vaccine is being tested against a type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma. If it works as hoped, the vaccine could  be applied to 90% of all known cancers, including prostate and breast cancer, solid and non-solid tumors.

“In cancer, the body knows something is not quite right but the immune system doesn’t know how to protect itself against the tumor like it does against an infection or virus. This is because cancer cells are the body’s own cells gone wrong,” said Julian Levy, the company’s CFO. “Coupled with that, a cancer patient has a depressed immune system, caused both by the illness and by the treatment. The trick is to activate a compromised immune system to mobilize against the threat.”

A traditional vaccine helps the body’s immune system fend off foreign invaders such as bacteria or viruses, and is administered to people who have not yet had the ailment. Therapeutic vaccines, like the one Vaxil has developed, are given to sick people, and work more like a drug.

Vaxil’s lead product, ImMucin, activates the immune system by “training” T-cells—the immune cells that protect the body by searching out and destroying cells that display a specific molecule (or marker) called MUC1. MUC1 is typically found only on cancer cells and not on healthy cells. The T-cells don’t attack any cells without MUC1, meaning there are no side effects unlike traditional cancer treatments. More than 90% of cancers have MUC1 on their cells, which indicates the potential for this vaccine.

“It’s a really big thing,” added Levy. “If you give chemo, apart from the really nasty side effects, what often happens is that cancer becomes immune to it. The tumor mutates and develops an ability to hide from the treatment. This vaccine is designed to overcome that problem.”

For cancers in an advanced stage, treatments like chemo or surgery to remove a large tumor will still be needed, but if the cancer can be brought down to scale, the body will  then able to deal with it.

ImMucin is foreseen as a long-term strategy, a shot every few months, with no side effects, to stop the cancer from reoccurring after initial treatments, by ensuring that the patient’s own immune system keeps it under control. This is incredibly exciting news.

The company is also working on a vaccine that treats tuberculosis, a disease that’s increasing worldwide, and for which the current vaccine is often ineffective and treatment is problematic.