Herpes is “the gift that keeps on giving” and may be useful. Doctors at the University of Southern California turned herpes into a cancer fighter. They took herpes simplex virus type 1 (the kind that causes mouth blisters), removed the parts that cause blisters, and tweaked it so the germ attacks only tumor cells. The team then paired the new virus, called RP1, with the drug nivolumab, which blocks a trick cancer uses to hide from the immune system.
In a study of 140 people whose advanced melanoma no longer responded to regular care, the combo shrank tumors by at least 30 percent in about a third of patients, and it wiped out all signs of cancer in nearly one person out of six. Even growths that never got an injection got smaller, hinting that the treatment travels through the body, and side effects were mild. A larger phase-3 trial with more than 400 patients is now underway.
Source: NY Post
