The long-awaited revolution in the fight against cancer is here.
For the first time in more than 50 years, doctors have found a way to treat this dreadful disease — by using the capabilities of our own immune system.
Today, some of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world are pouring tons of cash into this new treatment. And results show these companies are making amazing strides to prolong the lives of patients with some of the worst forms of cancer.
This treatment is one of the biggest early-stage trends in the world today. And investors stand to make a fortune investing in the right companies along this trend.
Let me explain…
The official “War on Cancer” began with the “National Cancer Act” of 1971. It was initiated by President Richard Nixon. Nearly half a century later, over $100 billion has been spent to help cure cancer.
Unfortunately, we’ve made very little progress …
The death rate hasn’t changed significantly since the 1930s for cancers like breast, prostate, colorectal, liver and pancreatic. By comparison, stroke and heart disease death rates fell 74% and 64%, respectively, between 1950 and 2006.
Sure, there have been strides in the past four decades. We’ve saved thousands of lives through prevention. We’ve even come to understand the genetic underpinnings of cancer. However, most of this success has come in the form of a few extra months of life for cancer patients.
To compare … We put a man on the moon in less than a decade. We created the most powerful network in the world known as the Internet in less than 20 years.
Yet, despite spending over $100 billion over the past few decades, we’ve seen little in terms of finding a cure for cancer.
For example, chemotherapy is still being used to treat cancer. This was discovered 70 years ago. Radiation is still being used to treat cancer. This technology was discovered in the 1890s.
And both have terrible side-effects.
Patients often experience uncontrollable vomiting, hair and tooth loss, heart and lung damage, memory loss and infertility. They may even develop a secondary cancer.
I’m not against chemotherapy or radiation. My late dad’s life was extended an extra few months because of these technologies. Radiation has helped prolong the lives of many women who have been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer.
However, chemotherapy and radiation do not discriminate between tumors and healthy tissue. They just destroy.
What we need is a treatment that targets cancer … a treatment that kills the bad cells while keeping the good cells intact …
This treatment is immunotherapy.
And it’s a game-changer in the War on Cancer.
Immunotherapy is a new treatment that trains the immune system to attack tumors. To get a better understanding of this technology, let’s take a quick look at how cancer works.
You see, cancer is one of the rare diseases that “tricks” the immune system.
Tumors flourish because the body doesn’t initially recognize them as invaders or threats. And when the body does recognize them, it attacks for a while and then gives up. It decides the battle is not worth fighting.
Immunotherapy tells your immune system to keep fighting. More important, this new treatment gets the immune system to target and attack cancer cells only. And early results from immunotherapy have been nothing short of miraculous.
For example, cancers like melanoma and pancreatic used to be viewed by doctors as a death sentence. Today, patients are living for years instead of months through different types of immunotherapy treatments.
And this is just the beginning.
Science Magazine announced immunotherapy as its “breakthrough of 2013.” From January through September 2014, venture capitalists poured upward of $1 billion into early-stage immunotherapy companies.
Next year, I expect even more cash to pour into this sector. That’s because I talked to leading biotech experts in this field. These experts have looked and analyzed all kinds of data in the field over the past few years. They tell me this is the biggest and most exciting trend in healthcare today.
For investors, the safest way to play this trend is to buy dominating companies like Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Merck & Co. (MRK) or Roche Holding AG (RHHBY). These companies are diving head first into the immunotherapy market. They have market-caps in excess of $100 billion, strong balance sheets and generate billions in cash flow.
However, the bigger gains will be made on some of the smaller names developing early-stage breakthrough technologies. I recommended companies like MacroGenics (MGNX) and Advaxis (ADXS) in August. These names are up an average of 131% in just over four months.
MGNX and ADXS are holds now. But I am looking into two more early-stage immunotherapy names. If my analysis is correct, these small-cap stocks could easily be short-term triple-digit winners as they are presenting important data in upcoming healthcare conferences over the next few weeks.
The long awaited revolution in the War on Cancer is here. For investors, this could mean huge profits as the immunotherapy trend is still in its infancy.
Good Investing,
Frank Curzio
