Virus as Cancer Therapy

Reovirus, a virus that resides in the human respiratory and gastrointestinal tract, is considered to be harmless as it generally does not cause symptoms. Kevin J. Harrington, from the Institute of Cancer Research (London, United Kingdom), and colleagues administered reovirus to 23 patients with a range of solid tumors involving the lung, bowel, ovaries, and skin, and all of whom ceased to respond to traditional cancer therapies.  Tumors were observed to shrink or stop growing in each patient who underwent radiotherapy coupled with a drug based on the reovirus.  Writing that : “The combination of intratumoral [reovirus] and radiotherapy was well tolerated,” the researchers urge that: “The favorable toxicity profile and lack of vector shedding means that this combination should be evaluated in newly diagnosed patients receiving radiotherapy with curative intent.”