(Newser)
– For decades, a deadly type of childhood cancer has escaped the best tools of science. Now, doctors have made progress with an unusual treatment: dripping millions of copies of a virus directly into children’s brains to infect their tumors and stimulate an attack of the immune system, according to the AP. A dozen children treated in this way have lived more than twice as long as they have had similar patients in the past, doctors say in New England Journal of Medicine. Although most of them eventually died from their disease, four are alive and well a few years after treatment – something virtually unheard of in this situation. “This is the first step, a critical step,” said lead author Dr. Gregory Friedman, a pediatric cancer specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Our goal is to improve this,” possibly by trying it when patients are first diagnosed or combining it with other therapies.
The study included gliomas, which account for 8% to 10% of childhood brain tumors. They are usually treated with surgery, chemotherapy or radiation, but often recur. Once they succeeded, the average survival averaged less than six months. In such cases, the immune system has lost its ability to recognize and attack cancer, so scientists have looked for ways to make the tumor a fresh target. They resorted to the herpes virus, which stimulates a strong immune response. A Philadelphia-based company called Treovir has developed a treatment by modifying the virus so that it only infects cancer cells, and through small tubes inserted into tumors, doctors gave the virus to 12 patients between the ages of 7 and 18. Eleven showed evidence in imaging tests or tissue samples. that the treatment worked. Median survival was just over a year, more than double what has been seen in the past. As of June – the limit of analysis of the results – four were still alive at least 18 months after treatment.
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