In a major breakthrough, British scientists have found that a harmless virus could cure advanced untreatable cancers.
The virus, which is commonly found in human respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts without causing any symptoms, given in combination with radiotherapy can benefit patients with advanced cancer significantly by reversing the disease.
A new drug, Reolysin, which contains virus particles, has been shown in preclinical and clinical studies in the UK to magnify the effects of radiotherapy. Reolysin is a new drug developed by Oncolytics Biotech Inc, a biotechnology firm based in Calgary, Canada.
Britain’s Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital have undertaken the pre-clinical and clinical trials and the results have been published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
A total of 23 cancer patients took part in the trial with a range of solid tumours, including lung, bowel, ovarian and skin cancers. All the patients had stopped responding to traditional therapies but were able to get some pain relief from radiation treatment.
The patients were given between two and six injections of Reolysin in escalating doses, combined with low or high dose radiotherapy. The study found that tumours of 14 patients, for whom tumour response could be measured, had either shrunk or stabilised. In seven patients, who received low dose radiotherapy, tumours shrank in two cases and stabilised in five. In seven patients on high-dose radiotherapy, tumours shrank in five cases and stabilised in two.