While cancer survival rates have increased greatly over the past decades, certain kinds of cancers remain extremely resistant to treatment except by devastating rounds of chemotherapy and invasive surgeries.
But a California-based surgeon, Dr. Yuman Fong, has invented what might be one of the most effective forms of immunotherapy that offers the prospect of simultaneously destroying cancer while strengthening the body’s natural defenses.
Partnering with an Australian pharmaceutical company that specializes in genetic-engineering treatments, they have started clinical trials with an injectable virus that could offer a safe and effective alternative to current treatment methods.
Dr. Fong, the chair of the Department of Surgery at City of Hope hospital in Duarte, California, describes his “professional life as having two passions, one, for surgery and two, for research,” as he explained in a video for City of Hope. Fong has devoted his career to revolutionizing the way cancer is treated.
“People ask me about what philosophy on progress is in cancer, and I say less invasive, more cures,” he says. “That’s where we should be going.” Fong himself has pioneered a new genetically engineered virus that exclusively attacks cancer cells, called CF-33. Fong adds, “The concept behind this field is that virus only like infecting certain cells.” Fong cites the example of the hepatitis virus, which only targets the liver, and meningitis, which goes after brain cells.
“I think this entire field of oncology that tries to bring more cures is as bright as ever,” Fong said. “The field of oncology is moving so quickly that many times, referring physicians in the public don’t even know that progress has been made, something that used to be considered stage 4 disease is now potentially curable.”
As Fong explained on the Australian show Proactive, the idea of injecting substances to fight cancer has a long history that goes back to the early 1900s. The first-generation viruses tested in the 1970s were so toxic that the harm they did to patients outweighed the good. All that changed with the advent of researchers’ capacity to genetically engineer viruses in the 1990s.
Chung says both of these versions should be ready to give to patients by the second quarter of 2020. “The promise of immunotherapy is that you have that level of safety, you have less toxic drugs that can be effective and leads to a longer overall survival,” Fong said.
In the trials at City of Hope hospital, Dr. Fong says the plan was “to go after triple negative breast cancer first,” as it is resistant to hormone therapy. Other cancers they hope to target in the future include melanoma, lung, bladder, and colon cancer.
In particular, it is hoped that the virus could treat an evolved gastric cancer called peritoneal carcinomatosis, for which there is currently no treatment. If the virus can help patients’ immune systems rebound, it is thought that recovery could become much more feasible.
