Medical Oversight and Investment

Immunocine maintains an exceptionally high threshold for the quality of doctors and scientists handling your immunotherapy preparation, administration, and care. As such, all personnel with direct patient or product interaction are appropriately certified and trained. This includes:

• Oncologists
• Interventional Radiologists
• Internists
• Medical – General
• Specialists as needed per case (e.g., cardiologist, pulmonologist, etc.)
• Cancer-experienced nurses
• Emergency trained personnel

Most of our patients reflect that the amount of time and investment they receive from the Immunocine medical team is unprecedented and unlike anything they’ve experienced so far along their journey.

Scientific and Regulatory Management

Immunocine only procures and uses cGMP (e.g., highest level) grade reagents within the lab to craft a patient’s personalized immunotherapy product. Analogous to a chef which can choose to use better (e.g., more expensive) or worse ingredients, Immunocine cuts no corners for something as important as this. All equipment is regularly serviced, and the lab maintains an ISO-7 certification licensed for a treatment such as this. The result being that the Immunocine lab is one of the most certified labs in the world, and you can trust the care and attention that goes into your Dendritic Cell creation.

Additionally, Immunocine maintains proper protocol approval, informed consent management, transparency policies, and works at a level to be expected of a top-rate operation.

While regulatory adherence can sometimes be seen as a nuisance and wasted expense, it is critical that patients know they can trust us with this delicate and important process..

Medical and Scientific Procedures

While with us, there are a number of procedures you will experience. This can include things such as:

• Biopsy (and associated procedure room, anesthesia, etc.,)
• Potential short-duration stay at a private hospital
• Blood Draws (and associated analyses)
• Temporary Central Line Placement
• Apheresis
• Scans
• Injections

And occasionally there may need to be some extra labs, scans, or the sort while you are with us in Cancun either for safety reasons or efficacy analysis. Regardless of the complexity of any of these, if within our medical treatment program, these are continually covered during treatment.

Though deceptively small in word count, procedures can quickly escalate costs with all that go into them. Rather than break out a la carte, these are already included in the package cost. 

Medications and Reagents

To increase your critical immune cells, as well as augment your body to weaken the cancer microenvironments, Immunocine may employ specific drugs which serve as synthetic molecules of naturally occurring products typically made during illnesses. This can include compounds like Neupogen, CpG, and Pegasys.

Because the patient may very well experience immune-related “side” effects, we are also ready to assist with symptom management medications as needed. We can also reduce the strength of the patient’s immune response with specific drugs (e.g., Dexamethasone, Tocilizumab, etc.)

And when in the lab working with the patient’s Dendritic Cells, we use the same quality of reagents that would be used if this treatment were going straight into the patient. Top shelf, all the way.

We are aware that many around the globe may use drugs and medications from cheaper sources to reduce costs. However, given the safety and efficacy risk that poses, we only use properly certified drugs and reagents from reputable sources.

Dendritic Cell Purification and Quality Control

Not all Dendritic Cells are made and handled the same way, yet this is a critical component. The preparation that goes into obtaining the correct precursors from the patient, along with the daily care in the lab to ensure the Dendritic Cells are correct and utilized optimally for your cancer is extensive. How they are ultimately “loaded” with your cancer information is of the upmost importance, and we treat it as such.

Not only does very unique and meticulous work go into your tumor breakdown and preparation for Dendritic Cell Reprogramming, but we go as far as to analyze Dendritic Cell quality as immunologists would. This includes not only tests for contamination and viability, but also high-level processing (e.g., flow cytometry) to ensure that your Dendritic Cells are properly completed, matured, loaded, and activated. After all, if this part fails, the treatment is unlikely to provide much benefit (if any at all).

This is an absolutely critical, yet often unheralded area – something patients certainly want and expect, but don’t necessarily think about. Don’t worry, we do.

Personalized Immunotherapy Manufacturing, Processing, and Storage

There is almost too much to say here, and any real attempt would be a disservice to what goes into this technology and preparation of the patient’s properly educated and activated (e.g., “Double Loaded”) Dendritic Cell Product. This is personalized, and only one patient’s product can be worked on by a single technician at a time. Every sample uses fresh reagents, and has to pass multiple checkpoints before being released for use. While biologically foundational, the techniques and ‘hands-on’ effort that goes into properly crafting a patient’s Dendritic Cell vaccine requires multiple high-level touch points and a deep understanding of biology and cell therapy processes.

Additionally, remaining aliquots (even beyond the first 3) are properly cryopreserved for potential future use (e.g., “boosters”). That long term storage and testing is within the overall package.

While it is true that this aspect may absorb a lot of the cost, the quality is beyond reproach.

Dendritic Cell Administration and Potential Add-ons

Admittedly, it sometimes perplexes us to see others attempt to send “Dendritic Cell” treatments by mail. Or to claim something as a Subcutaneous shot will be a “Dendritic Cell” treatment. Or to see Dendritic Cells infused (e.g., intravenously) when the science suggests that they traffic (a.k.a. targeted migration) very poorly via that route.

It isn’t that those treatments may not touch upon Dendritic Cells in some way, or that perhaps some of the injected Dendritic Cells might make it to the right destination – it just doesn’t respect immunology 101 principles and may be a decision based more on cost and ease than science. 

The Immunocine Dendritic Cells are administered by a trained Interventional Radiologist using image-guidance to target non-compromised, draining lymph nodes. Why? Because biology says that is where properly educated Dendritic Cells go. And this is what is most likely to stimulate the proper immune response.

When applicable, we also look to include other minimally invasive reagents or procedures to help improve the tumor microenvironment for even better immune targeting.

Coordination, Intra-Cancun Transportation, and Administration

For any business to stay afloat, it must remain organized and coordinated. That is even more critical for such a delicate program as this. And though you probably wouldn’t expect that to be a line item on a bill, we are simply being transparent that this is what some of the funds need to cover.

From all the upfront retrieval and review of your records, the due diligence opportunities, the various communications, schedule crafting, and assistance into the program – all complimentary without actually advancing into the program – is covered by some of the expense here.

However, that doesn’t mean we are done trying to ease your time with us. Drivers are included for you while in Cancun (from airport to hotel to all medical appointments) to help remove some of the stress of the schedule. Cancun-local concierges are available to help keep you on track, respond to queries or issues, and we work as much as we can on your behalf to offer a smooth experience. .

Once in the Immunocine program, you are never alone. We are here to help as much as we can, and this continues well beyond your time in Cancun.

Data Collection and Analysis

As a science-first company, we believe strongly in the power of data.  This includes more standard options and the requisite training to analyze (e.g. scans, pathology, liquid biopsies, bloodwork, etc.), but then also deeper analytics largely unique to Immunocine (e.g. flow cytometric analysis of the immune system, ELISAs of unique cancer markers, etc.,).  These ongoing collection points and analyses allow us to gain better understanding of how the patient’s immune system is truly responding to treatment, as well as help to shape us for improved success in the future.  We want all Immunocine patients to respond phenomenally well, but we also want Immunocine patients to know that they are a part of something much larger than just themselves.  

All data collected is available to the patients and their medical teams, and we are happy to review with each patient post treatment if there are specific questions. 

We understand that even with all that goes into this treatment, this can still be a lot of money to spend.  Though there is not much we can do to reduce cost while maintaining this level of sophistication and care, we do offer sizable refunds if treatment needs to be canceled or paused early in the process.  In this way, we hope to help you feel more confident in proceeding with us.

For more details about our refund policy, please review on our FAQ page.

Insurance Reimbursement & Financing Options

It’s natural to wonder if treatment might be covered by insurance. Because of its experimental nature, coverage should not be expected — though some patients have successfully recovered significant amounts, depending on their carrier and plan.

To help with this process, Immunocine partners with Medical Bill Gurus, a third-party reimbursement group that:

• Specializes in medical tourism
• Works on a contingency basis (no upfront cost)
• Collects a fee only from recovered funds, paid directly to their team — not to Immunocine

This group assists patients with submitting invoices and documentation after treatment. While reimbursement cannot be guaranteed, Immunocine includes their support as part of your treatment package.

We also connect patients with trusted third-party financing options:

• LightStream Medical
• Financing Life Credit.