Unconventional Weapon in the War on Cancer Revealed:
Immunicom & Sheba Medical Center Initiate Clinical Trial to Evaluate Breakthrough Oncology Treatment, Immunopheresis™ Therapy
SAN DIEGO and TEL AVIV – July 9, 2020 – Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer and Immunicom,
Inc. are initiating a ground-breaking clinical trial to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of the Immunicom
LW-02 plasma filtration device as a monotherapy and in combination with an anti-PD-1 immune
checkpoint inhibitor. Sheba Medical Center, which is located in metro Tel Aviv, Israel, is the largest
medical facility of its kind in the Middle East and was recently ranked as one of the top 10 Best Hospitals
in the World by Newsweek magazine.
“Immunicom is significantly accelerating its evaluation of the Immunopheresis™ therapy by teaming up
with Sheba Medical Center and its’ world-renowned principal oncology investigator, Professor Gal
Markel. This is the first trial where we are combining our novel Immunopheresis therapy with a market-leading checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy drug,” said Amir Jafri, Founder and CEO, Immunicom, Inc.
Utilizing a process similar to dialysis, Immunopheresis therapy is a non-pharmaceutical solution for
treating cancer by using the LW-02 device to remove the harmful excess of immune-suppressive
cytokines inhibitors produced by cancers to block the natural immune response to kill these tumors. The
LW-02 device has received Breakthrough Device designation for stage IV metastatic cancer from the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The 40-patient clinical study conceived and led by Principal Investigator, Professor Gal Markel, Director
of the Ella Lemelbaum Institute for Immuno-Oncology at Sheba Medical Center, will treat resistant
metastatic melanoma, triple-negative breast cancer, renal cell carcinoma and non-small cell lung cancer
patients.
“Immunicom’s innovative treatment approach neutralizes cancer’s ability to block the patient’s natural
immune defense mechanisms, which are usually exhausted when the patient is suffering from metastatic
disease,” said Markel. “The approach is based on selective extraction of soluble proteins that shield
tumors, to activate the patient’s immune system to fight cancer aggressively. This novel methodology
represents a sea change from traditional standards-of-care and offers the potential for achieving much
better clinical outcomes with fewer treatment side effects. Hagit Harati, head nurse and co-founder of the
newly established Immunopheresis Unit at Sheba, will be responsible of trial execution”.
The trial was made possible via a grant from the Samueli Foundation, which supports integrative health
initiatives in the U.S. and Israel, and funded the establishment of the Integrative Immuno-Oncology
Program (I2O) at Sheba’s Ella Institute, led by Prof. Markel.
Dr. Wayne Jonas, Director of Samueli Foundation’s Integrative Health Program, has had a particular
interest in this therapy’s potentially unique ability to filter out some of the key biologic facilitators of
cancer growth for many years. This drove Jonas and the Samueli Foundation to collaborate with
Immunicom to co-fund Prof. Markel’s clinical evaluation of this novel new immunotherapy approach for
treating cancer.
For an overview of how this breakthrough technology works see: https://www.immunicom.com/how-it-works. Immunopheresis is an investigational therapy that has not yet been approved for use by the FDA
or proven safe and effective for the treatment of any cancers. In addition to this new clinical evaluation of
Immunopheresis at Sheba Medical Center to treat several cancers, Immunopheresis is currently being
evaluated in Poland to treat triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) in an ongoing clinical trial.
About Sheba Medical Center, Tel HaShomer
Sheba Medical Center, Tel HaShomer is the largest and most comprehensive medical center in the Middle
East. Sheba is the only medical center in Israel that features several hospitals, including an oncology
treatment and research institute on one campus, and is at the forefront of medical treatments, patient care,
research and education. Ella Lemelbaum Institute for Immuno-oncology is a global leader in cancer
immunotherapy. In 2019 and 2020, Newsweek magazine named Sheba one of the top ten hospitals in the
world. To learn more, visit: eng.sheba.co.il.
About Immunicom
Immunicom, Inc. is a privately-held medical technology company located in San Diego, California and
Houston, Texas focused on developing innovative, non-pharmaceutical approaches for treating cancer,
inflammatory diseases, and autoimmune diseases. Immunicom's revolutionary blood-filtering technology
has the potential to effectively treat a wide variety of cancer types including those that have not responded
to other treatment strategies including other drug and biological-based immunotherapy options, with
possibly fewer side effects. The company seeks to leverage its technology to address unmet medical needs
and improve patient access and affordability of cancer and other inflammatory and autoimmune disease
treatments around the world.