Revelent News report from LA Times
This appears to parallel the approach that Vion is taking in thier research, ie targeting non-virus carriers(vectors) to deliver cancer treatments.
Any comments?
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Medicine: In promising therapy, cells are implanted with herpes virus gene and injected into tumors. The gene makes the tumors susceptible to antiviral drug.
By JANET MCCONNAUGHEY, Associated Press
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NEW ORLEANS--Researchers are experimenting with using cancer to fight cancer, injecting reprogrammed cells into otherwise untreatable tumors.
ÿÿÿÿÿIn test tubes and in mice, irradiated ovarian cancer cells that have been implanted with the herpes virus gene have located and bonded to tumor cells.
ÿÿÿÿÿOnce in place, the attacking cells produce an enzyme that turns toxic to themselves and their neighbors when treated with an antiviral drug called ganciclovir.
ÿÿÿÿÿ"I almost like to call them smart bombs," said Dr. Scott Freeman, a pathologist at Tulane University Medical Center. "They'll home [in on] tumor deposits . . . and they'll actually sit down on the tumor."
ÿÿÿÿÿTrials underway at Tulane and Louisiana State University Medical Center are a new wrinkle in tests of "suicide gene" therapy. The therapies usually use a virus to carry genes into the tumor, an approach that has two problems.
ÿÿÿÿÿOne is that a virus hits all cells, whether or not they are cancerous. The other is that the body readily sets up an immune response to the virus and eliminates it, said Dr. Jay Kolls, head of the LSU hospital's new gene-therapy program. "One of the things we'll be looking for is if a cell is better than a virus at delivering the gene," he said.
ÿÿÿÿÿIn testing on ovarian cancer patients at Tulane and Brown University, the average survival has been 12 months for women who were not responding to other treatment and had a life expectancy of nine months.
ÿÿÿÿÿ"We're not sure if that was significant or not, but it was not hurting them, and toxicity was minimal," Freeman said.
ÿÿÿÿÿThe treatment about doubled survival in mice, he said.
ÿÿÿÿÿDr. Savio Woo, who pioneered suicide gene therapy, said he hadn't heard of any work in the field that didn't involve use of viruses.
ÿÿÿÿÿ"It is different. . . . The advantage is no virus. But I don't know how effective it is without producing a virus," he said.
ÿÿÿÿÿThe advantage, Kolls said, is the death of virtually every cancer cell in lab tests and the ability to target cancer.
ÿÿÿÿÿAbout 100 million ovarian cancer cells were dripped recently into the space between the Rev. John Vaughn's left lung and his chest as part of the research being conducted by Kolls and Freeman.
ÿÿÿÿÿVaughn and five other patients will get a single dose of the cells followed by a week of ganciclovir to see whether the treatment is safe. If they do well, 10 patients will get up to three increasing doses of the cells, a month apart.
ÿÿÿÿÿVaughn, 71, was diagnosed six months ago with mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer that attacks the thin layer of cells on the surface of organs and inside body cavities. He was given a life expectancy of less than two years.
ÿÿÿÿÿVaughn isn't leaving his treatment entirely up to the researchers. He's eating a strict vegetarian diet and taking vitamins and shark cartilage as well. And, as a devout Christian, he considers his requests for prayers part of his treatment regimen.
ÿÿÿÿÿ"I'm using far-out sort of alternative medicine . . . and then I'm doing the very cutting edge of conventional medicine, plus a lot of prayer and a lot of faith," he said. "You know, if the Lord chooses to use these means to cure me, I'm issuing the invitation. But I'm fully resigned to whatever God wants."
Copyright Los Angeles Times
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