Polio Virus Boosts Survival Rates For Patients With Viciously Lethal Brain Tumor

Even with aggressive treatment, people diagnosed with Glioblastoma typically survive less than 20 months, while those with a recurrence usually die within a year. But 21 percent of the patients treated with the polio virus — all with disease that had recurred — were alive after three years. Scientists caution the treatment is in the very early stages.

The Associated Press: Enemy Turned Ally: Poliovirus Is Used To Fight Brain Tumors

One of the world's most dreaded viruses has been turned into a treatment to fight deadly brain tumors. Survival was better than expected for patients in a small study who were given genetically modified poliovirus, which helped their bodies attack the cancer, doctors report. It was the first human test of this and it didn't help most patients or improve median survival. But many who did respond seemed to have long-lasting benefit: About 21 percent were alive at three years versus 4 percent in a comparison group of previous brain tumor patients. (6/26)

The Washington Post: Polio Virus Treatment Increased Survival In Patients With Deadly Brain Tumors, Study Shows

A genetically modified polio virus improved the longer-term survival of patients with a lethal type of brain tumor, according to the results of an early-stage clinical trial published Tuesday. Twenty-one percent of the patients treated with the virus — all with disease that had recurred — were alive after three years, compared with just 4 percent of those who had undergone standard chemotherapy. The trial at the Duke Cancer Institute involved patients with glioblastoma, the kind of tumor that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is battling. The results were published online in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented Tuesday at an international brain tumor conference in Norway. (McGinley, 6/26)

NPR: Study: Genetically Modified Poliovirus To Treat Brain Cancer

"I've been doing this for 50 years and I've never seen results like this," says Dr. Darell Bigner, the director emeritus of the The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at the Duke Cancer Institute, who is helping develop the treatment. But the researchers and other brain-cancer doctors caution the research is at a very early stage. In the study, only 21 percent of patients experienced a prolonged survival. Much more follow-up research is needed to better assess and hopefully improve the treatment's effectiveness, the researchers say. (Stein, 6/26)

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