Viruses Could Be the Answer to Cancer

An experimental cancer-killing virus was injected into a human patient for the first time last week, as scientists began Phase I clinical trials for what they hope is a new drug to fight against cancer, the world’s second-leading cause of death.

💉 How it works... The drug candidate, called Vaxinia, is a genetically modified virus that not only harms cancer cells while sparing healthy ones, but also forces the cancerous cells to become more recognizable to the patient's immune system.

• After Vaxinia infects a cancer cell, it eventually bursts and dies, releasing thousands of new virus particles that provoke the immune system to also attack nearby cancer cells.
• Previous research in animals showed Vaxinia successfully harnessed their immune system to hunt and destroy cancer cells, but the treatment has never been tested before in humans – until now.

🧠 In the know: Phase I clinical trials are meant to test the safety and optimal dose of an experimental treatment, not definitively prove that it works. But Vaxinia’s co-developers – LA cancer center City of Hope and Australian biotech firm Imugene – will be closely watching to see if patients appear to respond to the drug in this ongoing trial, which is expected to be completed by early 2025.