Boston Doctors Use Virus to Fight Deadly Brain Cancer

For 20 years, patients with glioblastoma have watched from the sidelines as life-saving immunotherapies transformed care for nearly every other cancer. Now, researchers at Mass General Brigham and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have cracked the code.

Their breakthrough centers on a genetically modified herpes virus that does something remarkable. It selectively hunts down and destroys brain cancer cells while leaving healthy tissue completely untouched.

The virus works like a microscopic assassin with a mission. It infects a glioblastoma cell, kills it, makes copies of itself, then spreads to the next cancer cell. Each infection also triggers the immune system to join the fight.

Glioblastoma tumors are notoriously "cold," meaning cancer-fighting immune cells can't penetrate them. This is why immunotherapies that work miracles for melanoma and other cancers have failed brain cancer patients for two decades.

The team's clinical trial included 41 patients with recurrent glioblastoma who received a single injection of the oncolytic virus. Results showed the treatment extended survival compared to historical averages, especially for patients who already had antibodies to the virus.

When researchers examined tumor tissue from trial participants, they discovered something stunning. The treatment successfully recruited T cells deep into the tumors, where they stayed long-term and attacked cancer cells. Patients whose T cells got closest to dying tumor cells lived longest.

Executive Director E. Antonio Chiocca, who developed the virus, emphasized that increased T cell infiltration directly translated into therapeutic benefits. The standard of care for glioblastoma hasn't changed in 20 years until now.

The Ripple Effect

This breakthrough could reshape treatment for one of medicine's most devastating diagnoses. Beyond glioblastoma, the approach offers a potential roadmap for converting other "cold" tumors into targets the immune system can finally recognize and destroy.

The findings also validate years of research into oncolytic viruses, a therapy approach that once seemed like science fiction. Today, it's extending lives and opening doors that have remained locked for generations of brain cancer patients.

Patients who've exhausted traditional options now have a genuine reason for hope.