Using polio and measles viruses to treat rare cancers

When poliovirus infects a cell, it destroys it and moves on to attack surrounding cells. Stony Brook University researchers thought this property of the virus could be used to kill cancer cells. They made a weak poliovirus and injected it directly into neuroblastoma (brain cancer) tumors in mice. The virus destroyed all the tumors, but two of the tumors grew back by the end of the 180-day study period. The research was published in the March 15, 2007, issue of Cancer Research.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center have begun testing a genetically engineered safe measles virus to treat multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer. The study is enrolling adults who have multiple myeloma that is difficult to treat (refractory). The measles virus has already been shown through research to destroy myeloma cells in the lab and in research mice. The research team is also looking at ways to use the measles virus to fight other cancers such as breast, pancreatic, brain, and liver cancers.