Here’s something to wrap your brain around: tumors saves lives! Few cancer patients realize that tumor tissue is a precious information source that can play a critical role in fighting cancer if - and only if - it is saved at the time of surgery, and properly stored for human use rather than just lab testing. This because correctly banked tumor tissue can be used for the creation of personalized immune therapies tailored for each patient’s unique tumor profile or “fingerprint,” like the DCVax personalized cancer vaccine from Northwest Biotheraputics (OTCBB:NWBO) that saved the life of Bob Gibbs – now a 6 year survivor of a lethal Grade 3 brain tumor.
“Unfortunately, most cancer patients don’t realize tumor banking services are available, the magnitude of this choice, and critical differences between the types of bio banks in existence,” said Linda Powers, chairman of HealthBank – the only bio bank in the U.S. FDA certified as an eligible (“cGMP”) facility for the production and storage of cells for human use. “For those familiar with - and even using - tumor banking in facilities other than ours, gaining access to stored tumor tissue when needed can be quite challenging, if not impossible, for patients - even moreso if that tissue is required for personalized immunotherpay treatments like vaccines.”
With Bob’s notable 6 years of survival from a disease that’s effectively an immediate death sentence, he exemplifies the importance of tumor banking for the hundreds of thousands of terminally-ill cancer patients who now have hope for a longer and brighter future…but unfortunately don’t even know it. “Such tumor banking services for patients have been available in Japan and Germany for years, but is a new opportunity for patients in the U.S. with HealthBank’s FDA certification,” Gibbs notes.
To help expand patient knowledge about, and access to, tumor banking and related medical treatments, Bob has established Miles for Hope (www.MilesforHope.com), a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about brain and other cancer tissue banking and funds to support the cause. Bob’s heroic crusade to educate patients about tumor tissue banking and emerging immunotherapies – even as he battles his own medical issues - personifies selflessness and offers a highly compelling human interest story in this regard.
More information about HealthBank and its services may be accessed online at www.HealthBank.com. View a recent and related press release by Miles for Hope here: http://tinyurl.com/tumorbanking and compelling 5-minute docu-footage of Bob and his physician discussing tumor banking and the DCVax treatment here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1tCQjoCrOM. Learn more about the DCVax custom cancer vaccine here: www.kerncomm.com/CustomVaccine.doc.