In the phase 1 clinical study, which involved 36 patients with inoperable skin cancer, researchers administered a drug injection containing a coxsackievirus, a live common cold virus, along with pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug, according to an April 9 news release.
Melanoma tumors shrank in 47 percent of patients who received the therapy every few weeks for a minimum of two years, results showed. Eight patients experienced complete remission.
Thirteen patients had serious immune reactions in the liver, stomach or lungs, though the effects were comparable to those associated with pembrolizumab alone.
“Our initial study results are very promising and show that this oncolytic virus injection, a modified coxsackievirus, when combined with existing immunotherapy is not only safe but has the potential to work better against melanoma than immunotherapy alone,” said Janice Mehnert, MD, the study’s senior investigator and oncologist at Perlmutter Cancer Center.
It’s the first study to demonstrate that such viruses may boost the effectiveness of commonly used cancer therapies by making the cancer cells more vulnerable to the therapies.
The next phase of the clinical trials will include both patients with melanoma that has become widespread, and patients with tumors that could be surgically removed.
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