In a phase 1 clinical trial study, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles and other institutions said that experimental viral treatments can extend the life of patients with refractory brain cancer. In this study, patients with recurrent glioblastoma (neuroblastoma), one of the most common aggressive brain tumors, were injected with a modified virus. According to this study, among 43 patients who received the virus treatment, the survival time was 13.6 months. In contrast, the survival time of patients who did not receive this new treatment was 7.1 months. The first author of the paper, Dr. Timothy Klaus, director of the neuro-oncology program at UCLA, said: "No harm to healthy cells." "
Cloughesy said in a university press release, "This method can also treat other diseases, such as metastatic colorectal cancer and breast cancer.
Cloughesy is also a consultant for the biopharmaceutical company Tocagen. .. The company developed this treatment and provided most of the funding for this research. Researchers report that some patients who received this experimental viral treatment survived for more than 2 years with few side effects. The corresponding author of this paper, Dr. Michael Vogelbaum, deputy director of the Cleveland Neurotumor Neurotumor Clinical Center, said: "Brain cancer is a deadly disease. It points out.
The mechanism of action of this treatment is as follows. Injectable Toca511 (Editor's Note: an insoluble retroviral replication vector developed by Tocagen) is injected into the patient to infect actively dividing cancer cells and encode cytosine deamination. Enzyme genes of these cancer cells. Inside the tumor, Toca511 programs the cancer cells to produce cytosine deaminase in preparation for the second stage of treatment.
In the second phase of treatment, the patient took the antifungal drug TocaFC (Editor's note: this was also developed by Tocagen). Cytosine deaminase produced by the genetic changes in cancer cells caused by Toca511 converts TocaFC into the anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). The researchers explained that it targets cancer cells infected with Toca511 and can help tumors avoid the death of the host's immune system without harming healthy cells.
According to the university’s press release, this is the first public clinical trial result of this new genetically modified virus.
The purpose of the Phase I clinical trial is to evaluate safety and tolerability. The drug requires Phase 3 clinical trials approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Vogelbaum said: The overall results of this virus study, including accelerated survival and excellent safety data, support the ongoing phase II/III clinical trial called Toca5, which is expected to be in patients with brain cancer. Please provide a new treatment plan.