PositiveNewsCorner

Article by Paridhi Sharma based on inputs by Sanjeev Dua

For the first time, scientists have injected a human patient with a new and experimental cancer-killing virus. Known as Vaxinia, the virus developed in the US has been successful when tested on animals.

City of Hope — one of the biggest cancer research and treatment organizations in the country — stated in a release  that the virus has been shown to “shrink colon, lung, breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancer tumors in preclinical laboratory and animal models”.

“Our previous research demonstrated that oncolytic viruses can stimulate the immune system to respond to and kill cancer , as well as stimulate the immune system to be more responsive to other immunotherapies, including checkpoint inhibitors,” said Daneng Li, MD, principal investigator of City of Hope’s Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research.

“Now is the time to further enhance the power of immunotherapy, and we believe CF33-hNIS (Vaxinia) has the potential to improve outcomes for our patients in their battle with cancer.”

The drug will be administered in two groups, with the first receiving Vaxinia and the other receiving the cancer-killing virus plus an immunotherapy drug.

Phase 1 is generally about being safe and registering the correct amount of dose, thus, they don’t produce the desired results immediately.

Scientists have already seen tremendous success when testing the virus on animals, which was able to shrink the tumor in the experiments. While a successful animal trial is not an indicator of success in human trials, scientists are still hopeful this might open up new doors to help the body fight cancer. The trial is expected to be completed by 2025.