Like any good story, this one begins with a truth. A scientific discovery that cancer cells get their ability to metastasize and re-metastasize by fusing with bone-marrow derived stem cells. This is in contrast to the current view that cancers arise through multiple gene mutations. This could lead to insights to more effectively treat cancer.
The conventional path going forward with a new medical discovery is to develop new drugs through clinical trials, followed by FDA approval. This path requires raising billions, takes more than a decade, and success is a long shot at best. Our first steps on this conventional journey are underway, with the filing and receiving 30 patents on a drug that can target cancer metastasis. However, these new drugs are years from approval; they cannot help people who are currently dying of cancer. Even with FDA and market approval, the cost of the new drug would be so high that few people could afford it.
