Hematologists at the Mayo Clinic (USA) have successfully used modified live measles virus for the first time to treat multiple myeloma, a cancer of the hematopoietic system, reports Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
The magazine claims that Stacy Erholtz of Minnesota, one of the patients who received such therapy, has had no recurrence of myeloma for nine months. It is not known how long she will remain in remission of this dangerous disease, but it has already been recognized as a success.
No one has ever managed to reverse multiple myeloma after viral therapy. It was done by Mayo Clinic hematologist Dr. Stephen Russell, who gave two patients intravenously a modified measles virus in an exceptionally high dose. They relapsed several times and no therapy helped any more. Experimental treatment was their last chance.
Patients were not immune to the measles virus, and there were no antibodies to this organism in their bodies. This is very important because their immune system was not set to destroy it. Instead, the virus has been altered to increase the anti-cancer response of the immune system.
For a time, the patients’ condition was worse, with symptoms similar to measles, as the doctors expected. Then, however, they began to regain their strength, and most importantly, their bodies developed antibodies that destroy the measles virus, but at the same time they began to attack cancer cells as well.
USA Today says the best results came from Stacy Erholtz, whose forehead tumor the size of a golf ball disappeared just 36 hours after administering viral treatment. In the second patient, the immune response was weaker, but the success was that the body reacted at all.
Dr. Stephen Russell hopes to obtain approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct further measles trials in a larger group of patients.
Doctors more than 100 years ago noticed that the immune system can successfully attack cancer under certain circumstances. William B. Coley, a surgeon at New York Hospital, in the late XNUMXth century described the case of Fred Stein, a German immigrant, suffering from cheek sarcoma. He was operated four times, but each time the disease came back. Stein only recovered when he developed a high fever from a postoperative rose infection (an acute disease of the skin and subcutaneous tissue caused by streptococci).
The American surgeon on purpose even infected 12 patients with the rose who were not given any chance to live. Six of them went into remission. In one patient, the neck muscle with metastases to the right tonsil was in remission, but two other patients died prematurely due to complications.
Similar trials were carried out in the twentieth century. Specialists of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the 50s of the last century used the so-called. West Nile virus in over 100 patients with various cancers who have not been helped by any treatment. The immune system of people suffering from lymphoma was the most responsive, actively fighting cancer cells. However, some patients began to show concern for West Nile fever and the trial was discontinued.
In oncology, there is an increasing interest in the use of various microorganisms in the treatment of neoplastic diseases. Experiments with the use of herpesviruses and adenoviruses are carried out in various types of neoplasms. (PAP)