Miracle! New virus treatment kills cancer in patient after all other methods failed
The novel therapy alternative that uses a virus to attack cancer cells is showing good promise in early human studies.
In 25% of patients with a variety of advanced cancers, RP2 - a modified form of the herpes simplex virus - has demonstrated signs of efficacy.
A novel therapy alternative that uses a virus to attack cancer cells is showing good promise in early human studies. An identical procedure allegedly cured a patient from London of his illness. One individual received a complete recovery from the medicine while others experienced tumour shrinkage. As per reports, the medication is a weaker version of the herpes virus, which has been altered to target cancer cells.
Construction worker Krzysztof Wojkowski, 39, from West London was identified with mucoepidermoid carcinoma in May 2017. He received the news that there were no more alternatives for treatment after many procedures before being given the chance to enrol in the RP2 trial at The Royal Marsden in 2020. He stated:
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His cancer was entirely cured with five weeks of shots every two weeks. Wojkowski has been cancer-free for two years, and he calls it “a true miracle”.
One of the patients who used the alternative viral therapy developed by the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust of the UK was a man from London who had been diagnosed with salivary gland cancer.
The man underwent numerous operations and therapies, but they had little effect on his health. He had consented to take part in the initial clinical research in a last-ditch effort to find hope. He had no idea that the medication would cure his terminal illness. Apparently, the man has been cancer-free for two years.
Direct injection of the genetically modified virus into the tumour causes it to grow the cancer cells, which eventually explode from within. Additionally, it is known to inhibit a few proteins and improve the immune system's capacity to eliminate cancer cells. As a result, the injection has two effects: it causes the cancer cells to rupture and strengthens the immune system.
Three out of nine patients who received RP2 alone benefited from the therapy and had tumour reduction. One patient with cancer of the salivary gland experienced a complete remission of the malignancy 15 months after beginning treatment.
The two additional patients in this group both had unusual forms of eye cancer called uveal melanoma that had metastasized to the liver and esophageal carcinoma. They had a decrease in the size of their tumours and continued to respond to treatment 18 and 15 months, respectively, after beginning it, proving that their cancer had not advanced.
Thirty patients were given RP2 with the immunotherapy nivolumab, and seven of them experienced positive outcomes. In this group, one out of three patients with head and neck cancer, two out of eight patients with uveal melanoma, and four out of nine patients with melanoma skin cancer saw a slowing or regression of their malignancy, as per the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR).
Six of the seven patients who received the combination and had a benefit were still free of progression after 14 months. All of the trial participants had extremely advanced malignancies that had either not responded to normal medical treatments or to which they were ineligible.
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First Published:6 Oct 2022, 04:17 PM IST
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