Dr. Stephen Russell, the Richard O. Jacobson Professor of Molecular Medicine and a Consultant in Hematology from Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, in an article appearing online ahead of print and in the July 2014 print issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, announces a breakthrough in cancer treatment where one infusion of an engineered measles virus therapy produced long-term and significant remission of drug refractory myeloma.
Abstract
Measles Vaccine cures Woman Of Cancer
MV-NIS is an engineered measles virus that is selectively destructive to myeloma plasma cells and can be monitored by noninvasive radioiodine imaging of NIS gene expression. Two measles-seronegative patients with relapsing drug-refractory myeloma and multiple glucose-avid plasmacytomas were treated by intravenous infusion of 1011 TCID50 (50% tissue culture infectious dose) infectious units of MV-NIS. Both patients responded to therapy with M protein reduction and resolution of bone marrow plasmacytosis. Further, one patient experienced durable complete remission at all disease sites. Tumor targeting was clearly documented by NIS-mediated radioiodine uptake in virus-infected plasmacytomas. Toxicities resolved within the first week after therapy. Oncolytic viruses offer a promising new modality for the targeted infection and destruction of disseminated cancer.
Sources and Press Articles – Mayo Clinic Proceedings
- Mayo Clinic First to Show Virotherapy is Promising Against Multiple Myeloma, News Release, May 14, 2014.
- Taming Measles Virus to Create an Effective Cancer Therapeutic,
S0025-6196(14)00368-1. - Video by Mayo Proceedings, Published on 14 May 2014
- Remission of Disseminated Cancer After Systemic Oncolytic Virotherapy, S0025-6196(14)00332-2.