For decades, a deadly type of childhood cancer has eluded science’s best tools. Now doctors have made progress with an unusual treatment: Dripping millions of copies of a virus directly into kids’ brains to infect their tumors and spur an immune system attack, per the AP. A dozen children treated this way lived more than twice as long as similar patients have in the past, doctors report in the New England Journal of Medicine. Although most of them eventually died of their disease, four are alive and well several years after treatment—something virtually unheard of in this situation. "This is the first step, a critical step," said lead author Dr. Gregory Friedman, a childhood cancer specialist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "Our goal is to improve on this," possibly by trying it when patients are first diagnosed or by combining it with other therapies.
The study involved gliomas, which account for 8% to 10% of childhood brain tumors. They're usually treated with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation but they often recur. Once they do, survival averages just under six months. In such cases, the immune system has lost the ability to recognize and attack the cancer, so scientists have been seeking ways to make the tumor a fresh target. They turned to the herpes virus, which spurs a strong immune system response. A Philadelphia company called Treovir developed a treatment by modifying the virus so it would infect only cancer cells, and through tiny tubes inserted in the tumors, doctors gave the virus to 12 patients ages 7 to 18. Eleven showed evidence in imaging tests or tissue samples that the treatment was working. Median survival was just over a year, more than double what’s been seen in the past. As of June—the cutoff for analyzing results—four were still alive at least 18 months after treatment.
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