Cancer Immunotherapy – Jacinto Convit World Organization

Cancer Immunotherapy

This program seeks to make Dr. Convit’s breast cancer immunotherapy a standard low cost treatment option for patients. Through partnerships with research and health centers, JCWO works to advance its clinical trials in the US, South America and Europe using the ConvitVax. Additionally, this program looks to further enhance the anti-tumor effect of the ConvitVax by testing it in combination with other breast cancer therapies, as well as evaluate it as a treatment for other types of malignant solid tumors. With this program we direct our efforts to develop accessible immunotherapy protocols that can be affordable for underprivileged patients who lack the possibility of entering new innovative treatments.

We aim to make this immunotherapy available to patients who do not have access to new innovative therapies and in some cases, to standard of care treatments.

Every day we continue writing a new page, know our most outstanding milestones in Cancer Immunotherapy

1938

Dr. Convit, as a recently graduated medical doctor, starts to study Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease. He studied and documented detailed descriptions of the development of the disease and the lesions in patients that were confined in the leprosarium of Cabo Blanco in the city of La Guaira, in Venezuela. Dr. Convit lived with the patients in Cabo Blanco for more than 10 years, which gave him the advantage to learn much more about all aspects of the disease and be able to better treat the patients. His main goal was to eliminate the compulsory restraint of leprosy patients.

1950

Since the 1950’s, Dr. Convit with a group of doctors and medical students studied several drugs and the use of BCG to cure Leprosy. With a combination of these drugs, they were able to cure a group of patients, which led them to one of their biggest successes: they proved to the world that “Leprosy is curable”. These experiences and other complementary studies led Dr. Convit to firmly request the closure of the leprosariums. Venezuela became the first country to close these centers and no longer confine leprosy patients.

1960

Since the beginning of the 1960’s Dr. Convit began experimental studies with the Mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of Leprosy, performing cultures, differentiation studies, immunologic and cellular response to the presence of the bacteria and so on. It was then identified that in leprosy patients the immune system does not adequately respond to the infection, and is unable to eliminate the bacteria. At this point Dr. Convit started the immunotherapy assays in search of immunological improvements for the patients.

1980

In the late 1970’s the inoculation of Mycobacterium leprae in patients resulted in a positive immunological response. Thereafter, assays with cultured Mycobacterium leprae were performed, as the same bacteria isolated from human lesions were identified in Armadillos. This led to a successful culture of the bacteria and the final production of an effective specific immunotherapy (vaccine) to treat Leprosy using the isolated bacteria plus BCG.

1990

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis was affecting a great part of the population in rural areas of Venezuela, which led Dr. Convit to study the development of this disease. He performed immunological research and identified an immunological deficiency in patients affected. After the success of the Leprosy vaccine, he developed a similar highly effective immunotherapy (vaccine) for Cutaneous Leishmaniasis, which was later registered in the Sanitary Ministry of Venezuela for its mass production and distribution to specialized treatment centers throughout the country. This immunotherapy was widely used in the country, and other parts of the region, to treat patients with this disease.

2006

Dr. Convit encounters himself interested in one of the most dramatic diseases of the moment, as it is Cancer, and when doing research on this disease, specifically on breast cancer as one of the most common types, he realized that this disease shares some immunological similarities with the development of Leprosy and Cutaneous Leishmaniasis. In 2006 he makes a formal proposal of a breast cancer immunotherapy (vaccine) published in Venezuela’s national scientific journal, Gaceta Médica de Caracas.

2008

As a continuation of Dr. Convit’s work on cancer, he proposed to perform a pilot study to evaluate the effectivity of the cancer vaccine for patients in an advanced stage of the disease. In 2007 he began to recruit patients with advanced breast cancer, and during 2008 the study was successfully performed in Caracas, Venezuela with the support of local renowned oncologists.

2014

Dr. Jacinto Convit García was born in La Pastora in Caracas on September 11, 1913. He obtained his medical degree from Universidad Central de Venezuela in 1938. Ever since he dedicated his lifetime and work to helping the most underprivileged patients that suffered from tropical endemic diseases in Venezuela and throughout the world. He was devoted to the well-being of humanity until his lasts moments of life. After living a little over a century he died in his home in Caracas, the 12th of May 2014.

2015

In an effort to continue Dr. Convit’s legacy, Fundación Jacinto Convit publishes the results of his pilot study in breast cancer in a peer-reviewed journal, Clinical & Translational Oncology, giving Dr. Convit a post-mortem final publication. A pre-clinical study is performed this year to validate Dr. Convit’s cancer immunotherapy in a murine model.

2017

The Jacinto Convit World Organization, Inc. founded in 2014, begins its international efforts to promote and preserve Dr. Convit’s legacy and give support to the programs performed by Fundación Jacinto Convit. JCWO begins to contact various international institutions and clinics to include Dr. Convit’s cancer immunotherapy in clinical trials and as compassionate treatment.

2018

The results of the pre-clinical study in a murine model were evaluated and showed important and positive results as an antitumor therapy. The processed data and valuable conclusions were published as a research article on April 2018 in a peer-reviewed journal, Oncotarget.

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