(Newser)
– For decades, a deadly type of childhood cancer has eluded the best tools of science. Doctors have now moved forward with an unusual treatment: releasing millions of copies of a virus directly into children’s brains to infect their tumors and stimulate an immune system attack, according to the PA. A dozen children treated in this way lived more than twice as long as similar patients in the past, according to doctors in the journal New England Journal of Medicine. Although most of them died due to their illness, four are alive and in good condition several years after treatment, which is virtually unheard of in this situation. “This is the first step, a critical step,” said lead author Dr Gregory Friedman, a specialist in childhood cancer at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Our goal is to improve it,” probably by testing 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 are often repeated. Once they do, the average survival is less than six months. In these cases, the immune system has lost the ability to recognize and attack cancer, so scientists have been looking for ways to make the tumor a new target. They were directed at the herpes virus, which stimulates a strong immune system response. A Philadelphia company called Treovir developed a treatment that modified the virus to infect only 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. The average survival was just over a year, more than double what had been seen in the past. In June, the limit for analyzing the results, four were still alive at least 18 months after treatment.
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