A new treatment for skin cancer could potentially be on the horizon as a team of British scientists have discovered a way to use the genetically modified herpes virus to attack tumor cells in the body.
Researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London and the NHS Royal Marsden Hospital were able to genetically alter the virus so that it can help destroy cancer tumors but remain harmless to normal healthy cells.
They used the modified herpes virus to treat patients with advanced melanoma, after which they discovered that the survival rates of the patients significantly improved.
While all of the patients were diagnosed with an aggressive and inoperable malignant melanoma, those who were treated with a virus therapy called talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) at an earlier stage experienced a 20-month average improvement in their survivability.
The experimental melanoma treatment is considered the first one to use a virus as a key component.
The researchers tested the anti-cancer virus on 436 patients suffering from inoperable malignant melanoma. They came from 64 different centers South Africa, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
"There is increasing excitement over the use of viral treatments like T-VEC for cancer, because they can launch a two-pronged attack on tumors—both killing cancer cells directly and marshalling the immune system against them," lead researcher Kevin Harrington from the ICR said.
"And because viral treatment can target cancer cells specifically, it tends to have fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy or some of the other new immunotherapies."
Dr. Hayley Frend, science information manager at the Cancer Research UK, pointed out that T-VEC has been used in previous research to treat patients with advanced skin cancer. The new study, however, is the first one to ever show that the treatment can increase survival rates.
Frend added that the next objective will be to find out why only a certain number of skin cancer patients responded to the T-VEC treatment. This can help doctors identify which of their patients will benefit from it.
The anti-cancer virus procedure has yet to receive a license, but doctors have already expressed optimism about the new treatment for advanced melanoma. They hope that this scientific breakthrough would lead to the development of treatments for other forms of cancer.
The findings of the study have been submitted to drug regulators in Europe and the U.S.
The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Photo: Rachel Collins | Flickr
