Lehi, Utah, July 14, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lehi, Utah, July 14, 2026 – CancerVax, Inc., the developer of a breakthrough universal cancer treatment platform that “tricks” the body’s immune system into fighting cancer, today announced that it has successfully developed a single Polyepitope Smart mRNA that can disguise cancer cells as multiple viral infections.
The CancerVax platform is designed to harness the body’s existing immunity to detect, mark, and kill cancer cells with precision. At the core of the platform is a Smart mRNA that activates selectively in cancer cells. When activated, this Smart mRNA instructs cancer cells to produce proteins associated with viruses that are highly prevalent in the human population. This effectively disguises cancer cells as familiar viral infections and “tricks” the immune system into recognizing and killing them.
“Our earlier work focused on individual viral epitopes, such as measles,” explained Dr. George Katibah, Chief Scientific Officer. “With our Polyepitope Smart mRNA design, we have expanded that concept by encoding multiple viral epitopes with broad population immunity, including measles, influenza, CMV and others, into a single mRNA construct. This approach is designed to increase the probability that a patient’s existing T-cell immunity will recognize at least one of these viral signals and direct an immune response against the cancer cell. Our recent in vitro results provide encouraging validation of this strategy and represent an important step toward a broadly applicable cancer immunotherapy platform.”
Dr. Adam Grant, Principal Scientist, added, “Using large-scale immune epitope datasets and AI-assisted analysis, we identified and combined the most viable viral epitopes for our design to maximize the broadest population coverage. With every epitope we add, we increase the likelihood of activating existing T-cells. However, given the physical size constraints of practical mRNA design, we had to be selective. Using computational analysis, we designed a Version 1 Polyepitope Smart mRNA that provided a global population coverage of 96.26%. Since then, we’ve expanded our dataset and generated Version 2, which has a population coverage of 99.50%! This is truly a one of a kind mRNA design and we believe this broad and universal approach will be the winner we take to the clinic.”
The Immune Epitope Database (“IEDB”) population coverage algorithm was used to generate the following analysis of V1 and V2 Polyepitope Smart mRNA designs. IEDB, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), is the gold standard repository for experimentally validated immune epitope data.
To learn more about the CancerVax platform, please watch the Short Explainer Video at https://cancervax.com/explainer
About CancerVax
CancerVax is a pre-clinical biotech company developing a novel Universal Cancer Treatment platform that will be customizable, as an injection, to treat many types of cancer. Our innovative approach DETECTS, MARKS, and KILLS only cancer cells. By making cancer cells look like well-immunized common diseases, such as measles or chickenpox, we intend to use the body's natural immune system to easily kill the cancer cells. We look forward to the day when treating cancer will be as simple as getting a shot — a better way to fight cancer. To learn more, please visit www.CancerVax.com
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on our current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions regarding the future of our business, plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy, and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict, many of which are outside our control. Our actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this release is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date it is made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise.
Press Contact:
CancerVax, Inc.
Tel: (805) 356-1810
communications@CancerVax.com
