Copyright © 1996, 1997, 2001
by Galen Daryl Knight and VitaleTherapeutics, Inc.
Acknowledgments and Conclusions
For reasons that are not entirely clear, mice for Dr. Knight's long-term
follow-up of results reported in Cancer Research
were maintained at the University of New Mexico, School of Medicine, on
Minority Biomedical Research Support Grant #S06GM08139. Rechallenge of
mice responding to therapies in these studies was planned, but the "lay-off"
of Dr. Knight and Marilyn Fore (soon after it was discovered that they
were obtaining 90% initial efficacy in the treatment of uniformly fatal
melanoma) made execution of these control experiments impossible. To some
extent these controls were made unnecessary by the recurrence of tumors
grossly resembling melanoma in some of the aged mice just before death.
These relapses i) suggest a general failure of immunological surveillance
for the tumor in a few of the effectively-treated mice after prolonged,
and sometimes lifelong, disease-free intervals, and ii) are consistent
with other indications of immunological mechanisms
for the tumor-negating activities of the vitaletheine modulators. There
are very strong indications that boosters may prolong the disease-free
interval in the up to 90% of mice that respond initially. Also, refinements
to these unoptimized regimens and adjunct therapies are being developed
to close the remaining gap in unresponding animals.
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