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– For decades, a deadly childhood cancer has eluded the best tools of science. Now, doctors have made strides with an unusual treatment: Dropping millions of copies of a virus directly into children’s brains to infect their tumors and trigger an immune system attack, according to the AP. A dozen children treated in this way lived more than twice as long as comparable patients in the past, doctors in the past report. New England Journal of MedicineAlthough most of them eventually died of their disease, four years after treatment are still alive – something which is 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 in Birmingham. “Our goal is to improve on this”, possibly by trying it when patients are first diagnosed or by combining it with other therapies.
The study involved gliomas, which make up 8% to 10% of brain tumors in children. They are usually treated with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation, but they often come back. Once they do, the average survival is just under six months. In such cases, the immune system has lost the ability to recognize and attack the cancer, so scientists have been looking for ways to turn the tumor into a new target. They turned to the herpes virus, which stimulates a strong immune system response. Treovir, a Philadelphia company, developed a treatment by modifying the virus so that it would only infect cancer cells, and through tiny tubes inserted into the tumors, doctors gave the virus to 12 patients ages 7 to 18. Eleven showed evidence in imaging tests or tissue samples that the treatment worked. Median survival was a little over a year, more than double what has been seen in the past. By June – the limit for analyzing the results – four were still alive, at least 18 months after treatment.
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