A "sky-high" vaccine that can prevent 12 kinds of cancers is said to be quietly popular among wealthy people.
Some media reported a few days ago that Hong Kong MDX Medical Group released the "DCV Cancer Vaccine", which can prevent more than 12 kinds of cancers, including prostate cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer, with an injection of 98,000 yuan.
And such a good thing? The reporter of Science and Technology Daily immediately connected Zhi Xiuyi, the director of science popularization propaganda department of China Anti-Cancer Association and Professor xuanwu hospital of Capital Medical University, to hear what he said.
Is it pseudoscience? Try these three "magic mirrors"
"What cancer can be cured? Judging from this advertisement, it can basically be judged to be pseudoscience. " Zhi Xiuyi told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that, if nothing else, as far as lung cancer is concerned, there are small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer; Non-small cell lung cancer includes squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, squamous adenocarcinoma and large cell carcinoma; Some cancers are derived from epithelial cells, while others are derived from mesothelial cells … … It is impossible to prevent only one kind of lung cancer, let alone prevent 12 kinds of cancers together.
This characteristic of malignant tumor is called "heterogeneity" in academic circles, which can be roughly understood as that even if it is classified as the same tumor, it may be completely different. Some academic articles show that there are two kinds of heterogeneity: one is that the gene mutation of tumor cells of the same patient is different at different stages of tumor occurrence; The other is that different patients have the same tumor, but that "same" is not necessarily the same, just the same phenotype does not mean that the genotype is the same.
Zhang Xuemin, an academician of China 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 underground. No fragments are the same twice, and no two tumor patients have the same mutation. The human body has 3 billion base pairs, and it may not develop tumors if it is changed by tens of millions. The main problem in treating tumors is to find out which one is the driver mutation, so that targeted therapy can be possible. At present, scientists are using big data to find the most critical driving mutation genes (which can be understood as core components). According to clinical data and proportion, thousands of tumor driving genes have been found.
It can be seen that it is impossible to control the broad-spectrum WT1 gene only as mentioned in the product description of "DCV cancer vaccine" (assuming that the injected substance can control the gene first), and the so-called "universal gene" is totally false.
Therefore, "omnipotent, cure all diseases" is the first "mirror", especially for malignant tumors with complex mechanism, it is even more impossible to "take one enemy and ten".
"This kind of pseudoscience has another feature, and there are no specific research institutions and research events. If it is a real thing, there should be specific scientific research projects and scientific research results data, and the results should be displayed at international or domestic cancer conferences. " Zhi Xiuyi explained, "If it is clearly said that it is the work of a research institute or scientific research team of 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 introduce their research results and data at the ASCO meeting of the global cancer conference or the CSCO meeting of the domestic cancer conference."
However, the "DCV Cancer Vaccine" released by Hong Kong MDX Medical Group did not disclose any clinical trial data, how related clinical verification was promoted, the effect of the third phase of clinical research, whether relevant papers were published in academic journals, and which scientists and research teams participated in the research work. To put it bluntly, this achievement is like being produced out of thin air and cannot be traced back.
"Out of thin air, untraceable" is the second mirror, while "commercial manipulation and speculation for profit" is the third mirror.
"Although the production of a fake news is out of thin air, it must be driven by huge economic interests." Zhi Xiuyi said that the research and development and innovation of new anti-tumor drugs need a lot of money, especially in the clinical verification stage, which requires hundreds of millions of funds.
At this time, the methods of speculating the concept, raising the stock price, and financing have become a brilliant move for many capital players, and fake news has also become one of the springboard for them to "play" the capital market. As long as the sales performance and followers take the lead, this wave of operation may attract investment and become the so-called "model" of commercial manipulation. As some media have analyzed, its commercial essence is "cutting leeks".
Don’t let pseudoscience "fry" the tumor vaccine
This is a lie rumor about tumor vaccine, but "tumor vaccine" is a real new biotechnology in recent years.
People are familiar with: cervical cancer vaccine, hepatitis B vaccine and so on.
"In principle, the principle of preventive tumor vaccine is to prevent microbial infection from inducing tumors. For example, cervical cancer vaccine is to prevent polyoma virus; Hepatitis B vaccine is to prevent liver cancer; Prevent EB virus and nasopharyngeal carcinoma; Prevent Helicobacter pylori and prevent gastric cancer. " Li Zhongming, editor-in-chief of Contemporary New Vaccine (first edition), who once worked as a censor in the FDA of the United States, explained to the reporter of Science and Technology Daily: At present, preventive tumor vaccines must be related to microorganisms, and only therapeutic vaccines are targeted at tumors.
Focus! Tumor vaccine is divided into preventive and therapeutic, and injected into healthy people and tumor patients respectively.
Preventive tumor vaccine is only aimed at tumors caused by viruses and other microorganisms. Because it can clarify the formation mechanism of tumors, it can prevent them, and many vaccines have been put on the market.
Therapeutic tumor vaccine: At present, a tumor vaccine for prostate cancer has been marketed in the United States, and several therapeutic products are in the clinical trial stage.
Since therapeutic tumor vaccine is aimed at tumor patients and is therapeutic, why is it also called vaccine?
Li Hangwen, founder and CEO of Microorganism, a leading domestic tumor vaccine company, explained to the reporter of Science and Technology Daily that "tumor vaccine is actually a kind of immunotherapy. For example, we use mRNA to express tumor antigen. Tumor antigen is like a marker (wearing a red hat), which will remind and mobilize the police (immune system) to catch thieves, and the person wearing a red hat is a thief. Therefore, the immune system can find the thief according to the red hat and then attack the tumor. "
Because the principle that "portrait" makes the immune system know about tumor is consistent with the principle of vaccine, this immunotherapy method is also called "tumor vaccine".
"This is different from the way in which chemical drugs and antibody drugs introduce foreign aid. Tumor vaccines completely rely on the immune response generated by the human body to eliminate tumors. " Li Hangwen said that once immunotherapy is effective, it will generally not produce drug resistance, and the immune system will "intelligently follow up" until the tumor is beaten. Moreover, immunotherapy will produce immune memory, and when the human body encounters the same pathogen attack again, it will quickly produce immune response and eliminate the pathogen. With traditional methods, it is easy to produce drug resistance, and the tumor will "wander". If it recurs, it may be more dangerous.