An Example of a Targeted Viral Cancer Therapy

The present standards for cancer treatment are poorly targeted in comparison to prototype work taking place in the labs and clinical trials. Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and the like have a detrimental impact on the rest of the body, and their effectiveness is limited by the degree to which they hurt the patient in the process of impacting cancer cells. Their days are numbered, however. A broad range of next generation targeted treatments have been demonstrated in recent years, with few side-effects because they affect only cancer cells and their nearest neighbors. A number of these therapies use existing biological systems as a means of targeting cancer cells, such as viruses: The patient suffered from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. Last June, [doctors] injected her bloodstream with a form of measles that was genetically re-engineered to attack myeloma cells. The measles therapy followed a decade of unsuccessful treatments from numerous courses of chemotherapy to two stem cell transplants. But the cancer returned time and time again - until now. A year after the measles injections, she's still cancer-free. The idea of using viruses to defeat cancer - called oncolytic virotherapy - is not a new idea. [But] her case is the "first well-documented instance of a patient who has received an intravenously administered virus that has caused complete remission of disseminating cancer. We've known for a long time that this is possible in mice, but we had not known that...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs