Herpes virus kills cancer cells...

[Chelee]

I hope its ok to post this here? I found it interesting. It talks about the herpes virus killing cancer cells. I've read things along these lines before but this sounds promising. Here is one part of the article I copied and will paste here.

>>The German biotech company had already announced positive results from an interim analysis of a 13-patient Phase I/II study of NV1020 in September, but efficacy data from a case study was unveiled for the first time at the Swiss meeting.
Axel Mescheder, MediGene's research head, described the case of one very late-stage patient whose cancer had spread to 10 different places around the liver and four in the lungs.
He was given four weekly infusions of the virus followed by two cycles of chemotherapy, and six months after treatment scans showed that his liver tumors had nearly disappeared. The patient survived for 12 months following the intervention.
"The reduction in the tumor masses was really impressive in this patient. The hepatic (liver) masses almost disappeared," Mescheder said in a statement.
"The results are really quite encouraging at this early stage."<<<<

For the full story...link is below.


http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSL0531744720070707?sp=true

Chelee

[Hopeful]

Chelee,

Reading this jogged my memory of something I read in another paper on Her2, and I found it (of course!) while looking for something else -

Pilot Study of the Mechanism of Action of Preoperative Trastuzumab in Patients with Primary Operable Breast Tumors Overexpressing HER2

http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/full/10/17/5650

The stated purpose of the study was "To elucidate the mechanism by which trastuzumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody against HER2 with proven survival benefit in women with Her2+ metastatic breast cancer, mediates its antitumor activity."

The study involved 11 Her2+ bc patients treated with neoadjuvant Herceptin. In this small sample, there was one patient who achieved a complete pathological remission. The author had this to say about it:

"Interestingly, it may be worth to note that, shortly before diagnosis of breast carcinoma, the patient who underwent a complete pathological remission experienced a herpes virus infection that might have increased NK activity, as reported recently" (the author here cites Lundberg P, Welander P, Han X., Cantin E. Herpes simplex virus type 1 DNA is immunostimulatory in vitro and in vivo J. Virol. 2003; 77:11158-69.)

I now wonder, reading this blurb in conjunction with the article you posted, if the virus was still active in the patient who was infused with Herceptin, and the virus managed to help the Herceptin penetrate the tumor?

Fun to speculate.

Hopeful