Is Rerum ® the New Coley's Vaccine?

Abstract

Email: marco.drruggiero@gmail.com Abstract: In this article I describe the development of an alternative type of immunotherapy that traces its origins to the nineteenth century when Dr. William B. Coley successfully treated inoperable cancer patients with his vaccine. Despite the well-documented successes, the vaccine did not survive Coley's times and was forgotten and neglected for decades in favor of radioand chemotherapy. In the mid-fifties of the last century, the concept of a therapy based on stimulation of the immune system re-emerged from oblivion even though with a profoundly diverse connotation; the interest in this approach to cancer has grown exponentially ever since, up to the point of appointing immunotherapy of cancer the" breakthrough of the year" in 2013. Most cancer immunotherapies are based on proteins that either empower the immune system or attempt to selectively kill cancer cells. There are, however, some exceptions to this protein-based approach; the pioneering work of Dr. Prudden in New York and our research work in Florence, Italy. Thus, independently of each other, we pursued an alternative concept of immunotherapy that is based on glycosaminoglycans rather than proteins. From this research, a novel, tridimensional supramolecular structure constituted by chondroitin sulfate, vitamin D3 and oleic acid, designated Rerum ® , was developed with the intent of reviving the historical approach of Dr. Coley at the light of today's knowledge. Here, I describe the rationale for the development of Rerum ® as well as some preliminary results that were presented at the Fourth International Congress of Integrative Medicine held in Fulda, Germany, in April 2017.