Holistic Health Show

Research published online in the journal Clinical Cancer Research found that the oncolytic virus that is engineered to destroy cancer cells may work better to treat brain tumors if combined with an enzyme that helps penetrate the tumor. The enzyme, chondroitinase, facilitates movement through the protein molecules that fill space between cells and that impedes the movement of the virus through the tumor.

Testing in animals transplanted with the most deadly form of brain cancer cells, human glioblastoma, ” the enzyme armed virus improved survival by 52 percent compared with controls and in some cases eliminated the tumor entirely.” In the study, researchers injected the deadly brain cancer cells under the skin of eight animals. After tumors developed they treated the tumors with the enzyme-armed virus. These subjects survived an average of 28 days compared to the controls that were treated with the virus only who survived 16 days. Two animals in the research group remained tumor free after 80 days. In a second study where the deadly cancer cells were injected into the brain even better results were found with a 32 to 21 day ratio for survival giving an improvement of 52 percent. Again 2 animals in the research group lived more than 80 days and showed no trace of the tumor. Researchers concluded that “results indicated that an oncolytic virus armed with this enzyme can have a significantly greater anticancer effect compared with a similar virus without the enzyme.”