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Dr. Klehr Institut für Immunologie und Zellbiologie GmbH.
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Impressum
Dr. Klehr Institut für Immunologie und Zellbiologie GmbH.
all rights reserved.
Impressum
Press release 15.10.98:
Patent granted for cancer therapy !
Klehr’s autologous cytokine therapy has been granted a German patent
When surgery and chemotherapy fail to cure cancer, researchers and clinicians turn to immunotherapy. The German patent office has granted a patent (DE 3923848 C 2) for a key immunotherapy technique to Dr. Nikolaus Klehr’s autologous cytokine therapy. Like other cancer therapies such as monoclonal antibody therapy, Dr. Klehr’s technique is based on the principle that each human being carries cancer cells in their body. The immune system of healthy individuals identifies such cells and eradicates them with the aid of specialized killer cells or dendritic cells. However, when a carcinoma develops, this crucial mechanism is suppressed. In some cancers, a disproportionate number of so called growth signals are sent to degenerative tumor cells. Moreover, the malignant cells in many types of tumors are masked in such a way that the body’s immune system is unable to recognize and eradicate them.
In Klehr’s autologous cytokine therapy, samples of the patient’s blood are sent to the laboratory where the patient’s white blood cells are cultured in such a way as to provoke increased production of cytokines, which then become targeted information-bearing substances for the immune system. Transfusion of the resulting vaccine back into the patient enables the immune system to recognize and attack masked malignant cells. This is why Dr. Klehr’s patent has a rather complicated title: Das Demaskierungstraining für autologe Immunozyten gegen maskierte Tumorzellen in vitro (“Training autologous immunocytes to demask in vitro tumor cells”).
Random sample studies of patients treated with Klehr’s autologous cytokine vaccine in conventional therapeutic settings have shown that in patients who completed these studies, tumor cell propagation was halted or decreased, or complete remission of the cancer was achieved. Of these patients, 34 percent underwent a so called “stable phase,”tumor mass decreased in 9 percent, and the tumor was fully eradicated in 2 percent of the patients following a relatively brief course of therapy. The manufacture and clinical use of this cancer vaccine have been approved by the German government, and many physicians throughout Germany have been administering this therapy for years now.
Patent granted following two decades of research
The German patent also provides a thumbnail sketch of how Dr. Nikolaus Klehr, 53, developed autologous cytokine therapy. After receiving his training in medicine and biology at the Universities of Heidelberg and Frankfurt, Dr. Klehr specialized in dermatology and subsequently became a professor of dermatology at the University of Hamburg, where his research centered around the etiology (causal mechanisms) of skin cancers provoked by ultraviolet radiation. Dr. Klehr has held positions at Munich’s Institut für Immunforschung (Immunology research institute) and elsewhere and since early in his career has conducted research into the growth patterns of tumor cells. As Dr. Klehr’s patent states, “The applicant’s experiments with human white blood cells (WBC) in 1978 revealed that these cells survive more successfully in cell cultures and in some instances even propagate in vitro (i.e. in the laboratory).
”This phenomenon had not yet been described at the time, and thus the patent also states as follows: “The applicant was the first to discover –without using any specialized procedures (i.e. using conventional techniques) –that WBC survive longer in vitro. The applicant was also the first to conduct experiments with such cells. (...) This enabled the applicant to make numerous observations that had not yet been described in this manner. (...) He was able to do this because, as a dermatologist, the applicant has devoted particular attention to the tumors that fall within the purview of his discipline while also conducting research on other types of tumors.”The patent lists the following “beneficial effects of the discovery:”“The therapeutic variant has the following advantages:
1. It is 100 percent biological.
2. The need for the total eradication of the tumor mass (which would otherwise be required in such cases) is obviated by
the fact that the technique activates the tumor cell eradication properties of the immunocytes.
3. In many instances, tumor cells divide at a slower rate than the body’s own cells. The applicant’s biological technique is
particularly well suited for this type of tumor cell.
4. This technique is able to detect all types of tumor cells that are amenable to in vitro detection, thus allowing for
development of a broader range of tumor cell-specific cancer therapies.”
Patent granted for cancer therapy !
Klehr’s autologous cytokine therapy has been granted a German patent
When surgery and chemotherapy fail to cure cancer, researchers and clinicians turn to immunotherapy. The German patent office has granted a patent (DE 3923848 C 2) for a key immunotherapy technique to Dr. Nikolaus Klehr’s autologous cytokine therapy. Like other cancer therapies such as monoclonal antibody therapy, Dr. Klehr’s technique is based on the principle that each human being carries cancer cells in their body. The immune system of healthy individuals identifies such cells and eradicates them with the aid of specialized killer cells or dendritic cells. However, when a carcinoma develops, this crucial mechanism is suppressed. In some cancers, a disproportionate number of so called growth signals are sent to degenerative tumor cells. Moreover, the malignant cells in many types of tumors are masked in such a way that the body’s immune system is unable to recognize and eradicate them.
In Klehr’s autologous cytokine therapy, samples of the patient’s blood are sent to the laboratory where the patient’s white blood cells are cultured in such a way as to provoke increased production of cytokines, which then become targeted information-bearing substances for the immune system. Transfusion of the resulting vaccine back into the patient enables the immune system to recognize and attack masked malignant cells. This is why Dr. Klehr’s patent has a rather complicated title: Das Demaskierungstraining für autologe Immunozyten gegen maskierte Tumorzellen in vitro (“Training autologous immunocytes to demask in vitro tumor cells”).
Random sample studies of patients treated with Klehr’s autologous cytokine vaccine in conventional therapeutic settings have shown that in patients who completed these studies, tumor cell propagation was halted or decreased, or complete remission of the cancer was achieved. Of these patients, 34 percent underwent a so called “stable phase,”tumor mass decreased in 9 percent, and the tumor was fully eradicated in 2 percent of the patients following a relatively brief course of therapy. The manufacture and clinical use of this cancer vaccine have been approved by the German government, and many physicians throughout Germany have been administering this therapy for years now.
Patent granted following two decades of research
The German patent also provides a thumbnail sketch of how Dr. Nikolaus Klehr, 53, developed autologous cytokine therapy. After receiving his training in medicine and biology at the Universities of Heidelberg and Frankfurt, Dr. Klehr specialized in dermatology and subsequently became a professor of dermatology at the University of Hamburg, where his research centered around the etiology (causal mechanisms) of skin cancers provoked by ultraviolet radiation. Dr. Klehr has held positions at Munich’s Institut für Immunforschung (Immunology research institute) and elsewhere and since early in his career has conducted research into the growth patterns of tumor cells. As Dr. Klehr’s patent states, “The applicant’s experiments with human white blood cells (WBC) in 1978 revealed that these cells survive more successfully in cell cultures and in some instances even propagate in vitro (i.e. in the laboratory).
”This phenomenon had not yet been described at the time, and thus the patent also states as follows: “The applicant was the first to discover –without using any specialized procedures (i.e. using conventional techniques) –that WBC survive longer in vitro. The applicant was also the first to conduct experiments with such cells. (...) This enabled the applicant to make numerous observations that had not yet been described in this manner. (...) He was able to do this because, as a dermatologist, the applicant has devoted particular attention to the tumors that fall within the purview of his discipline while also conducting research on other types of tumors.”The patent lists the following “beneficial effects of the discovery:”“The therapeutic variant has the following advantages:
1. It is 100 percent biological.
2. The need for the total eradication of the tumor mass (which would otherwise be required in such cases) is obviated by
the fact that the technique activates the tumor cell eradication properties of the immunocytes.
3. In many instances, tumor cells divide at a slower rate than the body’s own cells. The applicant’s biological technique is
particularly well suited for this type of tumor cell.
4. This technique is able to detect all types of tumor cells that are amenable to in vitro detection, thus allowing for
development of a broader range of tumor cell-specific cancer therapies.”