This was the early method of performing a lobotomy. And just 50 years ago, they were carried out not only on severely mentally ill people, but also on moody teenagers, or housewives who’d lost their enthusiasm for domestic work. Seriously. Over 40,000 Americans were lobotomized, often with catastrophic results.

Thankfully, they’re a thing of the past. But it made me think about how medicine has changed over the years and what practices were once acceptable. Just a few hundred years ago, for example, you wouldn’t have questioned the “doctor” for putting leeches on you any more than you do today for prescribing an antibiotic.

What other common medical practices will be outdated in the years to come – and more importantly what will replace them? As someone who follows the health care sector, I believe I have the answer to the next big thing in health care: Immunotherapy and regenerative medicine…

How Immunotherapy is Changing the Playing Field

Immunotherapy has been around for decades in the forms of vaccines, allergy shots, etc. It involves introducing something into the body to create an immune response. For example, when you receive a flu shot, you’re essentially training your body’s immune system to respond to specific infectious agents.

And then there are more serious diseases – like cancer.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen new cancer medicines receive approval, with even more in development.

With greater technology and intensive ongoing research, we may one day look back at chemotherapy (the equivalent of carpet-bombing your body in order to kill cancer) as barbaric as we do lobotomies.

And with regard to immunotherapy drugs, the body’s immune system specifically targets the cancer, typically resulting in fewer side effects than chemotherapy.

Several well-known cancer drugs already employ this technique – for example, Genentech’s Avastin and Herceptin and Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) and ImClone’s (now Eli-Lilly) joint-partnership with Erbitux. All three have become blockbuster drugs for these companies.

Three Small-Cap Firms That Could Cash in on Immunotherapy

But there are also many small-cap health care companies engaged in immunotherapy research, which stand to make piles of money for shareholders if they develop a successful drug. Here are some names to look into…

• Dendreon Corp. (Nasdaq: DNDN): Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among American men and is the second-highest cause of cancer deaths. Dendreon’s leading drug candidate for prostate cancer, Provenge, could be approved in 2010.
• Cel-Sci Corp. (AMEX: CVM): The company’s Multikine drug, which treats head and neck cancer has completed Phase II trials and its scientists are currently working on an H1N1 flu drug, too.
• Northwest Biotherapeutics (OTC BB: NWBO): The firm has several drugs in various phases of clinical trials for brain, prostate and lung cancers, including DCVax-Brain, DCVax-Prostate and DCVax-LB for non-small cell lung cancer. It also has DCVax-Direct, which treats ovarian, head and neck cancer.

Three “Regenerators” for Your Health Care Sector Watchlist

In addition to immunotherapy drugs, the field of regenerative medicine is also flourishing and holds some excellent growth potential, as we’re still in the early stages of understanding the power of stem and other regenerative cells. Here are a few names to kick off your research…

• Cytori Therapeutics (Nasdaq: CYTX): The company already has a product approved in Europe (Celution 800/CRS) and Asia (Celution 900/MB) for breast reconstruction following a partial mastectomy. The firm is currently running clinical trials in several cardiac areas, too.
• StemCells Inc. (Nasdaq: STEM): The company currently has clinical trials in progress for drugs that treat diseases of the central nervous system and liver.
• Geron (Nasdaq: GERN): It’s involved in both immunotherapy research for cancer and stem cell investigation in spinal cord injuries.

Keep in mind that most of these stocks are very small, so their trading can be volatile. In addition, they may need to raise funds to aid research and development, so do your due diligence.

However, I’m confident that over the coming years, firms like these will be at the forefront of new, more effective and safer ways to treat some of the world’s worst diseases.

Hoping your longs go up and your shorts go down,

Marc Lichtenfeld

Source: How to Profit from Immunotherapy & Regenerative Medicine

This from Today’s Financial News:

The theoretical benefits of stem cell therapy could have a revolutionary effect on biotechnology and medicine.

Stem cell technology could create a renewable source of specifically differentiated cells to replace and regenerate cells and tissues damaged by conditions such as heart disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s etc…

It could provide tools for the identification and (hopefully) prevention of the causes of abnormal cell division that lead to birth defects and cancer.

And it could change the way we test new medications entirely.

Adult vs. embryonic stem cells

As a general rule, adult stem cells can only be relied upon to divide and replenish into cell types of their original tissue. This is fine in situations where a patient’s own cells can be used and such treatment thereby avoids immune rejection.

Embryonic stem cells, on the other hand, can develop into any and all cell types. And they are much easier to grow in culture as compared to adult stem cells.

What does this mean for stem cell biotech companies?

Most of the smaller American companies engaged in stem cell research have had to focus on a specific adult stem cell for narrow applications because of limitations to Federal funding for new stem cell cultures.

For example…

StemCells, Inc. (NASDAQ:STEM), is currently focused on human neural stem cell and human liver engrafting cells.

Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp. (CVE:SSS) and BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics (OTC:BCLI) take cells from patients’ own bone marrow in order to treat, Parkinson’s, ALS, spinal cord injury, etc.

Transitions Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:TTHI) and Ixion Biotechnology, Inc. focus on using islet beta cells in the pancreas to treat diabetes.

The addition of embryonic stem cells to genetic therapy has the potential to revolutionize the revolutionary.

Imagine… rather than focusing all their money and time on one specific type of cell, they could apply their science to cells affecting areas throughout the body.

These unspecified embryonic cells can (again, in theory) be specialized to fix whatever ails you, once the science catches up.

The tiny biotech firms would no longer have to rely on qualified adult donors (think of all the restrictions the Red Cross now has regarding acceptable blood donors!).

And with the relative ease of embryonic stem cell culture proliferation, experimentation can reach new levels.

Obama Administration to support stem cell research

President-elect Barrack Obama has clearly stated his opinion, “ … we must all work together to expand federal funding of stem cell research and continue moving forward in our fight against disease by advancing our knowledge through science and medicine.”

And that could mean lower costs and higher ROI for these small biotech companies (many of which are trading under $2 today!).

Source: New administration could mean advances — and profits — for U.S. stem cell biotech companies