Theralase Technologies Inc CEO Roger Dumoulin-White on Immune System Memory Response Written By: James West | December 9, 2014 | Posted In: Company Top Stories Theralase Technologies Inc. (TSX.V:TLT) (OTCMKTS:TLTFF) CEO Roger Dumoulin-White on the breakthrough development of how is company’s Photo Dynamic Compounds have actually been discovered to foster an immune system memory response in mice with bladder cancer. Midas-Letter-financial-radio-podcast-thumb Listen to the interview with Roger Dumoulin-White: 00:00 12:38 Full Transcript James West: So Roger the last time we chatted was back in February of 2014 and that was when I first started following Theralase. Now what has happened since then? I notice the share price has really turned around and started to develop some momentum in an upward direction. What has happened since February 2014 to justify such a turnaround in the share price? Roger Dumoulin: Well, James, I think lots of things have transpired. We’ve moved our photodynamic compound technology forward. That’s the anti-cancer technology. We moved our therapeutic division forward, the TLC 2000. So on the photodynamic compound technology, we’ve done a lot of work on the pre‑clinical or on the mice studies. I think a big turning point was in May of 2014 where we announced that we had a memory response or immune mediated response. In those sets of experiments done, Princess Margaret Cancer Center, we had mice where we injected 350,000 colon cancer cells. We allowed it to develop into a tumor of about 5 millimeters in size. We did an inter-tumor injection of one of our lead PDCs or photodynamic compounds. We waited for about four hours for it to uptake into the cancer cells. We light activated it and what we found is we completely destroyed the primary tumor. We followed those mice for many months and they did not develop tumors, there was no scarring, no recurrence so no destruction of healthy tissue so it met its primary goal of destruction of the primary tumor. What we wanted to see is how the immune system responded to being re-challenged to the cancer cells and as you may or may not know one of the primary challenges in destroying cancer is not only to destroy the primary tumor, but any micro metastases that happen later on. James West: Micro metastases, now there’s a word you’d have to practice. Roger Dumoulin: You’d have to practice that a little bit. What basically it means is when you destroy the primary tumor, you may not get all of it. You may get the bulk of the tumor… James West: Right. Roger Dumoulin: …but if you have some cells that survive the treatment or some cells that you miss, they can come back with a vengeance. James West: So they go into the bud seam and spread to other parts of the body? Roger Dumoulin: They can start to localize into the bones of the other organs… James West: Right. Roger Dumoulin: …they start to develop and by the time they’re detected, they can be, you know, literal or terminal for the patients. So it’s very important to understand how to destroy those. James West: Sure. Roger Dumoulin: So what we did in the set of experiments at Princess Margaret Cancer Center were we took the mice who successfully went through the PDT therapy or photodynamic therapy technology and we re-challenged them, which means we re-injected them with 350,000 cancer cells. In the work that was done in May of 2014, what we found is we re-injected those cancer cells anywhere from 10 days to 23 days post original primary tumor destruction and what we found is that 60 percent of them did not develop tumors, but 40 percent of them did. They developed small tumors which were quickly destroyed by what we feel was the immune system. So fast forward to November of 2014 and the press release that recently came out, what we did is we did that same experiment. Took mice, used the PDT technology and destroyed the primary tumor, but this time we waited 20 days so almost three weeks to re-challenge them with the 350,000 colon cancer cells. What we found was 100 percent non‑recurrence of the tumors. So what we feel is that it’s very important I think what’s been one of the drivers for the stock is that the immune system is an extremely important part of our ability to fight cancer. It’s often why cancer is known as an older person’s disease because your immune system becomes more compromised, less resilient to destroy infections and destroy, you know, tumors or cancerous cells. So what we’ve done, a very important thing, is not only destroy the primary tumor, but the recurrence of those. And what this experiment showed is that within the 20 days re-challenging the immune system has now been taught to recognize those specific cancer cells and to locate them anywhere in the body, hunt them down like on a search and destroy mission and destroy them without any further intervention. James West: Just so then by the natural immune system? Roger Dumoulin: By the immune system. James West: Wow. Roger Dumoulin: So if you look at surgery, or radiation, or chemotherapy all of those compromise the immune system. James West: Right. Roger Dumoulin: Our technology preserves the immune system and in fact enhances it. James West: So photodynamic compounds have no deleterious side effects on the immune system itself? Roger Dumoulin: That is correct. James West: What are the side effects of the photodynamic compound sort of treatment? Roger Dumoulin: Well, there are two FDA approved drugs, ALA and Photofrin. With those, those are systemic injection drugs so you’re actually injecting it into the blood stream and they’re red light activated. Two of the major contraindications or problems with them are (1) it makes the patient highly light sensitive. In fact, you can’t go into the sun without hat, gloves, scarf, fully covered, every inch of your skin covered regardless of summer, winter, etcetera, for four to six weeks after treatment. The second thing is because it’s systemic there can be a lot of localization of the drug into the renal system; the kidneys, the liver, etcetera. With our technology because our lead cancer is bladder cancer and we’re doing an intravesical installation which basically means we’re injecting it through the urethra directly into the bladder, there’s no systemic talk. So it’s not going into the rest of the body so it’s going to have a much higher safety tolerability. The second thing is because our compounds, we use micrograms of the compound so very, very low doses. If you’re talking an 8 ounce glass of water dropping a grain of salt into it. That’s the kind of concentration is extremely low. Also, it takes a lot of light to activate them. So what we believe that we’ll see is no photo toxicity so you could go get the treatment on a weekend and you could be back on the beach on Monday, no problems. James West: Wow. Okay so what else has happened that’s also contributing to a stronger share price? Roger Dumoulin: Well, I think that the market’s been looking for the development of our other division, our TLT division. We’ve been working on the next generation therapeutic laser. So we have produced the TLC 1000 system and when we last met in February 2014 that’s a technology that we use to generate $1 million to $2 million worth of revenue for the company. One of the issues with our technology and with any other competitive device in this field is that they can’t really determine how deep their light is in going into tissue or whether they’re actually hitting the targets and actually treating those. What the technology is based is you’re using light energy and you’re putting that into tissue, very specific colors or wave lengths. There are light sensitive proteins in the body called chromophores which are able to grab the light energy and change it into chemical energy that the body can use. So there’s three main cellular pathways which are used to eliminate pain, eliminate inflammation, and accelerate tissue. But one of the challenges in the industry is that if you don’t put enough light into the tissue at the tissue surface, you’re not going to have enough light at tissue depth. So because patients come in a number of different physical characteristics, we have different skin colorations, we have different amounts of subcutaneous fat, different amounts of muscle, you know, different depths of our structures and our injuries that there’s a wide variation. The work that we did at Princess Margaret Cancer Center showed that there was about a 10,000 fold difference or 10,000 times difference the amount of light that actually reaches tissue depending on our condition and on our physical characteristics. So our new technology, our TLC 2000 which we’ve been developing throughout the year and we’re launching in December of this year, it has the ability to sense exactly how deep your condition is and the constituent makeup of your tissue and deliver that exact dose of energy each and every time. So it’s just a far superior device both in safety and efficacy. James West: Well, that’s really interesting, Roger. So what’s going to continue to drive the stock in the right direction if you will in 2015? What is going to add value to the company throughout next year? Roger Dumoulin: Well, we feel our strategic objectives are obviously in both divisions. One is going to be the launch of the TLC 2000 device. This is going to happen in December 2014. So into 2015 the expansion and rollout of that technology into Canada and the U.S. is going to be a major driver of revenues. Our guidance for 2015 is around $5 million in revenue and in 2016 around $10 million in revenue. So that would dramatically increase the revenue of the company, it would provide capital for the corporation, it would minimize dilution of the stock through capital raises. So that’s going to be a major driver, you know, from a bricks and mortar side. On the PDC division, the photodynamic compound division, it’s really completing the Health Canada and the FDA meetings at the end of first quarter beginning of second quarter and then getting the green light to start our first man in human clinical trials in bladder cancer. Once we’re able to start enrolling subjects, we’ll be able to collect the clinical data required to show safety and efficacy of our technology. Successful completion of a phase 1, 2A clinical trial with our technology would clearly validate our technology in a human model with individuals stricken with a very deadly disease, bladder cancer, and be able to show the world what our technology can do. James West: That’s fascinating. Okay, let’s leave it there for now. We’ll come back to you in another couple of quarters and see how the company’s making out. Thank you for joining us today. Roger Dumoulin: Look forward to it. Thank you, James.