Today the chance of a woman being diagnosed with invasive breast cancer is 1 in 8. The chance of it killing her is 1 in 35. The National Breast Cancer Foundation says 2600 women will die from the disease each year. That's an average of seven people a day, every day of the year. But during National Breast Cancer Awareness month, why don't we talk about the advances in treatment to attack the cancerous cells? The research is out there and treatments are very close to becoming reality. It's a great message of hope.

There are army's of researchers across the world working on groundbreaking projects to better treat the cancer and reduce the death toll. The Holy Grail for researchers is to find a cure. Ask most researchers if there will be a cure for cancer and the answer is a resounding "yes". It's just a matter of finding the right process which takes time and research dollars.

One team of researchers is on the leading edge of breast cancer research. Mentor Capital, Inc (MNTR) and Quantum Immunologics (QI) are currently undergoing FDA trials for a patented immunotherapy treatment. Instead of enduring mastectomies, chemotherapy and radiation, patients receiving MNTR/QI's patented Oncofetal Antigen (OFA) dendritic therapy process are reporting only flu-like symptoms that naturally follow any immune system activation. OFA has ALSO been found on all 500 cancers tested and is not found on healthy tissue.

In laymen's terms dendritic cells alert the immune system to an attack. It appears the cells in women with breast cancer don't work well. If those cells can be fixed, then the theory goes, immunotherapy can kick start the body's immune system to deal with the breast cancer cells. The biggest advantage over radiation treatments is the lack of side effects. So the trick is to find a process to repair the faulty dendritic cells to get the immune system working again and fight the cancerous cells. Clinical trials are proving to be promising.

QI, based in Tampa, Florida, is currently sponsoring and conducting an FDA-authorized Phase I/II clinical trial testing the safety and efficacy of its immunotherapy on twenty-seven Stage IV breast cancer patients who have failed conventional therapy. According to Mr. Chuck Broes, CEO of QI, "This achievement marks a significant milestone in the life cycle of our company, and we look forward with great hope and commitment as we aspire to a successful trial outcome."

Chet Billingsley, CEO of Mentor Capital adds, "The successful initiation of concurrent Phase I/II trials represents an important step in the value equation for QI. With Mentor Capital, holding 20% of QI, this should reveal attractive buying opportunities for biotechnology investors, now that QI is at the clinical stage."

Under QI's clinical trial each patient will receive three monthly injections of the patient's own dendritic cells that have been sensitized to OFA. It is anticipated that once the sensitized cells are injected back into the patient, the patient's T-cells will locate the OFA found on the patient's cancer cells, thereby generating an immune response with the goal of killing the cancer cells and preventing further spread of the disease.

Isn't it comforting to know how close research has come?