Lab-Grown Virus Helps Scientist Overcome Stage 3 Breast Cancer
Key Highlights:
- 49-year-old virologist, successfully treated her breast cancer using a virus she cultivated in the lab
- Faced significant ethical concerns and rejections when attempting to publish her findings
-Oncolytic virotherapy: The treatment that saved her life
Beata Halassy, a 49-year-old virologist, successfully treated her breast cancer using a virus she cultivated in the laboratory. A case report published in Vaccines described the treatment as "unconventional" and "unique." In 2020, Halassy was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and had a history of local recurrence.
The case report described how Halassy personally administered a treatment known as oncolytic virotherapy (OVT) to aid in the treatment of her stage 3 cancer.
Halassy acknowledged that she wasn't an expert in oncolytic virotherapy (OVT), but her expertise in "cultivating and purifying" viruses in the lab gave her the confidence to attempt the treatment. She chose to target her tumor using two different viruses in succession—starting with a measles virus, followed by a vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). As reported by Nature, Halassy's oncologists agreed to closely monitor her throughout the self-administered treatment, allowing her to switch to traditional chemotherapy if necessary.
Stephen Russell, an OVT specialist, reportedly agreed that Halassy’s case suggests the viral injections worked to shrink her tumour. But he didn't believe that her experience really broke any new ground, "because researchers are already trying to use OVT to help treat earlier-stage cancer."
The Moral Dilemma she faced:
Halassy, who wanted to publish her findings, received more than a dozen rejections from journals. She said she was met with rejections because the paper, co-authored with colleagues, involved self-experimentation.
“The major concern was always ethical issues,” said Halassy.
Jacob Sherkow, a law and medicine researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said the problem is not that Halassy used self-experimentation as such, "but that publishing her results could encourage others to reject conventional treatment and try something similar".
The authors of the paper emphasized that self-medicating with cancer-fighting viruses “should not be the first approach” in dealing with diagnosed cancer. But they wished to encourage formal clinical trials of assessing OVT as neoadjuvant therapy in early cancer.
What is OVT?
Oncolytic virotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses genetically modified viruses to target and destroy cancer cells. Unlike chemotherapy, it specifically infects tumor cells, leading to their destruction, and may also trigger an immune response to boost its effectiveness.
HEALTH Disclaimer: This article is for general information only. It is not a substitute for any medicine or treatment. Always consult your doctor for more information.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel 'PUNJABKESARI.COM' now for all the news of the country and the world. You can also follow us on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM and TWITTER.