60 Minutes Reports on Possible Brain Tumor Cure from … Polio (!?)

If you didn’t watch the 60 Minutes segment entitled “Killing Cancer” last night, you should. Here’s a link: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/polio-cancer-treatment-duke-university-60-minutes-scott-pelley/

 

The episode announces a new Glioblastoma treatment protocol developed at Duke University: infecting (injecting?) the tumor with polio.

What? Polio? One of the great diseases of the last century? Are you crazy? Well, as it turns out, a lot of people thought that Dr. Matthias Gromeier, who  came up with this idea, was truly crazy.

As I understand it, cancer is “invisible” to the body’s immune system and, as such, grows exponentially without the body’s natural defenses. Injecting polio both helps kill the disease and, at the same time, makes the body’s immune system aware of the cancer. Once aware, the body’s immune system attacks the cancer and seems to do more work in killing the tumor than the polio.

Importantly, the large polio molecules don’t seem to infect the brain (phew!).

This treatment protocol is in an early stage trial in which nobody expects a 100% batting average. But 60 Minutes reports that “So far there have been 22 patients in the polio trial. Eleven died. Most of them had the higher dose. But even so they lived months longer than expected. The other 11 continue to improve. Four are past six months which Duke calls "remission."

The show went on to say that “Dr. Darell Bigner is the head of the study and of Duke's Brain Tumor Center. He's been fighting brain cancer 50 years and he told us he has never seen results like those in patients Fritz Andersen and Stephanie Lipscomb. They lived months longer than expected. The other 11 continue to improve. Four are past six months which Duke calls ‘remission.’”

I can’t summarize this mesmerizing 60 Minutes segment in this blog. So go to this link and watch it yourself: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/polio-cancer-treatment-duke-university-60-minutes-scott-pelley/

*Pictured above: Dr. Matthias Gromeier, a molecular biologist who's been laboring over this therapy for 25 years and Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes

Tests show woman's brain tumor shrinking after poliovirus injection

That headline, written by Renee Elder of The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), seems like something we’ve read a zillion times only to be disappointed later. This might be different because, as Elder writes, “The same virus that causes paralysis and sometimes death in polio patients may have the potential to cure people with cancerous brain tumors based on early results of a research trial underway at Duke University Medical Center.”

I’m no researcher or medical professional*, but this sounds like (Gadzooks!) something new. 

Here’s the nut of the story from Ms. Elder: “Stephanie Lipscomb, 22, learned that she was nearly cancer-free during a checkup at Duke Cancer Center on Monday -- 14 months after a modified version of the poliovirus was injected into her brain to treat a recurring, aggressive cancer known as glioblastoma.”

Glioblastoma, (“GBM”) for those of you somewhat new to the tragic world of brain tumors is one of the most uncompromising villains of brain tumor. The National Cancer Institute reports that “GBM is one of the most devastating forms of all cancer, with a dismal life expectancy after diagnosis of less than 15 months.” 

In fact earlier this year the National Brain Tumor Society, the largest nonprofit dedicated to the brain tumor community in the United States, announced “the formation of the Defeat GBM Research Collaborative. Defeat GBM is a strategic research initiative, which aims to double the five-year survival rate of patients with glioblastoma multiforme the most common and deadliest form of brain cancer – in just five years.” 

For those of you who, like me, are mathematically challenged, that means stretching the survival rate to thirty months. Given the effectiveness of our current weapons in fighting GBM, that result would be a huge improvement for victims yet, at the same time, seems woefully inadequate.

So when I read this article about a “modified poliovirus” that is seemingly curing a young victim of GBM, I sat up and took notice. If you are similarly interested, here’s a link to the article: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/07/31/4839511/tests-show-womans-brain-tumor.html#storylink=cpy

*I did, though, feel like a professional patient after a series of brain tumor operations and procedures. If you have trouble sleeping, Chief Complaint, Brain Tumor  (http://www.chief-complaint.com/) – a book about my brain tumor journey - might be of some help.

Image credit: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/photo_21167389_close-up-of-human-hand-holding-pen-examining-x-ray-results.html'>nexusplexus / 123RF Stock Photo</a>