Doctors use herpes to fight untreated advanced cancer

Herpes is known as a “constant gift” – and finally, its presence comes in handy.

About two-thirds of the global population have been infected with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), which often causes painful and ugly blisters around the mouth.

Researchers at the University of Southern California found a way to rename the often-experienced subject by genetically modifying HSV-1 and administering it to drug resistance, advanced skin cancer and anti-cancer drugs and anti-cancer drugs.

In a recent clinical trial, the two punches shrank by at least 30% in about one-third of the 140 participants. Nearly one-sixth of the tumors completely disappeared.

“These findings are very encouraging, because melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in adults, and about half of all advanced melanoma cases cannot be managed with currently available immunotherapy,” said Gino Kim In, a medical oncologist at USC Keck Medicine.

Advanced melanoma means that skin cancer has spread from its initial location to other parts of the body, such as lymph nodes, liver, or brain.

Immunotherapy can help the immune system attack cancer cells, and targeted therapy and radiation therapy are common treatment options.

“The survival rate of untreatable advanced melanoma is only a few years, so this new therapy offers hope for patients who may not be able to fight cancer,” he said.

In January, the Food and Drug Administration gave priority review of RP1 (GMO-modified HSV-1), its anti-cancer drug Nivolumab (sales in OPDIVO) to patients with advanced melanoma who do not respond to immunotherapy.

Nivolumab blocks cancer cells from using key proteins to evade the immune system, paving the way for the immune system to recognize and attack these cells.

The idea is that Nivolumab enhances the effects of RP1, the effects of RP1 targeting, infecting and replication destroying them in tumor cells while retaining healthy tissue.

In The Post, RP1 was developed by eliminating specific genes in HSV-1 and therefore no longer causes cold sores.

“The virus has been made to stimulate the immune system to better fight cancer and help the virus interact with tumor cells more effectively and kill tumor cells.”

In the USC trial, the researchers injected RP1 into surface tumors on the skin or near the skin and in deeper tumors in the body, such as the liver or lungs.

Combination therapy is performed every two weeks for up to eight cycles.

After that, patients who began to see results only had nivolumab for two years every four weeks.

The researchers were stunned and noticed that the size of the treated and untreated tumors differed. Uninfected tumors shrink or disappear as frequently as tumors injected.

“This suggests that RPI can effectively target cancers throughout the body, not just injected tumors, which amplifies the potential effectiveness of the drug, as some tumors may be more difficult or unattainable.”

RP1 was reported to be well tolerated in participants.

The results of the trial were published Tuesday in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and were recently presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

IN and his team launched a three-phase trial that examined the treatment effects of more than 400 cancer patients.

People interested in participating in the trial sponsored by RP1 manufacturer Repleimune should contact Sandy Tran at sandy.tran@med.usc.edu.