Immune boosting virus could be used to treat brain tumours

LONDON: A trial of a potential new brain cancer treatment has shown that a virus injected directly into the bloodstream can reach tumours deep inside the brain and switch on the body´s own defence system to attack them. The trial involved just nine patients, but scientists said that if the results could be replicated in larger studies, the naturally occurring ´reovirus´ could be developed into an effective immunotherapy for people with aggressive brain tumours. “This is the first time it has been shown that a therapeutic virus is able to pass through the brain-blood barrier,” said Adel Samson, a medical oncologist at the University of Leeds´ Institute of Cancer and Pathology who co-led the work. He said their trial had shown not only that a virus could be delivered to a tumour deep in the brain, but that when it reached its target, “it stimulated the body´s own immune defences to attack the cancer”.