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Scientists Successfully Use Herpes-Based Drug To Treat Skin Cancer In Virotherapy Treatment

Trending News: Scientists Successfully Use Herpes Virus To Treat Skin Cancer

Emma Overton

May 27, 2015

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Why Is This Important?

Because the return of virotherapy could mean big things for cancer treatment.

Long Story Short

In a recent clinical trial, scientists successfully used a modified version of the herpes virus to treat skin cancer.

Long Story

Virotherapy, the process of reprogramming viruses to treat diseases, was first tested on humans in the 1940s and '50s. Research, however, was delayed for some time "due to the inadequate technology available."

Now, thanks to advances in genetic engineering, scientists have used virotherapy to successfully treat skin cancer patients.

Yesterday, the Journal of Clinical Oncology published the results of a successful phase 3 trial for a herpes-based drug called T-VEC. It is the first virotherapy drug to be successful in a phase 3 trial.

During the trial, out of 436 patients, one in four responded to the treatment an 16% were still in remission after six months. 10% of the patients experienced complete remission and were cancer-free. The drug can be considered a cure if those results remain for the next five years.

Incredibly, all the patients had inoperable melanoma with no conventional treatments available to them. “They had disease that ranged from dozens to hundreds of deposits of melanoma on a limb all the way to patients where cancer had spread to the lungs and liver,” explained lead author of the study Keith Harrington in an interview with The Guardian.

Scientists created the drug by modifying a herpes virus to stop it from producing the protein that allows it to infect healthy cells. When cancer cells come into contact with the drug, they fill in the missing protein, allowing the drug to thrive within the cancerous tissue.

The herpes multiples inside the cancer cells until they burst open, spilling the herpes virus out into the tumor. The body recognizes the herpes virus as harmful and attacks it, simultaneously attacking the tumor.

Even more amazingly, the process seems to permanently enhance the immune system's ability to detect and attack cancer cells. Scientists are not sure why it happens, but the trial showed that even tumors not injected with T-VEC began to shrink after the initial injection.

“It’s like an unmasking of the cancer,” Harrington told The Guardian. “The patient’s immune system wakes up and attacks the cancer cells wherever they are in the body.”

The drug has been submitted to the FDA and European Medicines Agency and could be available to cancer patients as early as next year if approved.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: Could other viruses be harnessed similarly?

Disrupt Your Feed: Viruses could simultaneously be the biggest threat to humanity, but our greatest chance for survival against cancer.

Drop This Fact: There have been many reported cases where a cancer patient naturally infected with a virus like influenza or measles experiences a brief remission from the cancer.