In one of the patients, the cancer completely disappeared.
Scientists from the British Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Foundation Marsden NHS Foundation has announced that cancer can be treated using the herpes virus. The first clinical trials of this method have already yielded results: one patient's cancer completely disappeared, and other tumors were significantly reduced, the BBC reports.
The drug developed by the researchers is a weakened form of the herpes simplex virus that has been specially modified to fight cancer. So far, this method of treatment needs larger and longer studies, but according to experts, it opens up prospects for the treatment of rare and advanced forms of cancer.
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One of the patients participating in the first phase of the trials was Krzysztof Wojkowski, a 39-year-old construction worker from London who was diagnosed with salivary gland cancer in 2017. Despite the treatment, the disease continued to progress.
A short course using the herpes virus allowed him to defeat the disease. For five weeks, the man was injected directly into the tumor, after which it disappeared. Voikovsky has been in remission for two years.
The leader of the study, Professor Kevin Harrington, said that the results obtained are “really impressive” in the treatment of some advanced forms, including esophageal cancer and a rare type of eye cancer.
“It is rare to see such good results in the early stages of clinical trials, because their main purpose is to test the safety of the treatment, and they involve very difficult patients for whom existing treatments no longer work,” he said.
This is not the first time scientists have used a virus to fight cancer There is already one similar drug called T-Vec. According to Harrington, the new drug, RP2, is its enhanced version.
Previously Swedish scientists discovered another function of platelets, which is manifested in the development of oncological processes. It turned out that these blood elements can prevent the spread of tumors in the body.
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Important! This publication is based on the latest and current scientific research in the field of medicine and has an exclusively general informational character. The publication cannot be the basis for establishing any diagnoses. If you are sick or need a diagnosis, see a doctor!
