Cancer cells in humans are tricky and often hide from our T-Cells 鈥� those white blood cells that kill anything that鈥檚 not normal to the human body.
Now a researcher at the University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center is using a $2 million grant to study how a form of immune therapy can .
UNM Associate Professor Eric Bartee uses a virus called myxoma, which is essentially smallpox in rabbits. Through a treatment of oncolytic therapy it aids those T-Cells in finding a tumor and keeps them active long enough to kill it. He said the virus basically plants a big sign in the middle of the tumor for the immune system to find and do its work.
鈥淲e can cure most cancers that we try with pretty much 100% efficacy and it never comes back once we cure it,鈥� said Bartee.
Bartee said that there still needs to be basic research done in terms of this type of immunotherapy since patients can all respond differently, depending on a respective treatment.
鈥淲hen it works, it works amazingly well, but unfortunately, it doesn鈥檛 work on everyone yet,鈥� Bartee said.
The study is in its pre-clinical phase and Bartee is currently testing with mice. About half the animals saw tumors disappear after viral exposure. The other half responded, but tumors did not go away completely. However, when the virus was combined with a TNF blocker, the tumors disappeared. TNF blockers reduce inflammation and are commonly used to treat things like rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn鈥檚 disease.
He said that while this treatment would not eradicate cancer, it isn鈥檛 nearly as toxic as other traditional treatments and would provide a safe and effective therapy that could help some patients cure cancer or receive a shorter and maybe cheaper treatment that has fewer side effects .
鈥淚f we can get it into trials and if it鈥檚 successful would help some patients that would not currently be treatable with the existing therapies,鈥� Bartee said.
The $2 million grant is from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
But to move into human patients Bartee needs money. Viral treatments are expensive to manufacture and he would need a biotech company to sign on to support requirements by the Food and Drug Administration.
Bartee said that that are authorized for human use, and even if the myxoma virus does not get into a human trial he hopes his research could aid other therapies for patients to receive better responses and lower toxicity in treatment.
鈥淎nd know that just because something鈥檚 not in people right now, don鈥檛 think that it won鈥檛 be and don鈥檛 think that it鈥檚 not going to end up helping people, even if it never gets there,鈥� Bartee said.鈥�
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
