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Scientists will use 'hybrid' virus to treat cancer
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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To teach the immune system to recognize cancer cells, a "hybrid" virus can be used.
The immune system must react not only to bacteria and viruses; cancer cells are no less a foreign element for our body than external pathogens. But quite often a malignant tumor manages to deceive the immune system. Scientists have long been trying to find a way to "play along" with the immunity of cancer patients so that their defense system wakes up and fully attacks the harmful cells.
Scientists from the University of Strasbourg (France) have attempted to create a virus-based cancer vaccine. Like any other vaccine, it must “train” the immune system; only in this case, the immune system had to be shown not a half-dead infection (as with conventional vaccines), but the characteristic features of cancer cells.
During malignant transformation, the cell literally changes its appearance: special proteins appear on its surface, characteristic of cancer cells and no other. That is, these proteins could become a good target for the immune system.
In their experiments, the researchers used one of the varieties of lung cancer, and in order to show the surface protein of the cancer cell to the immune system, one of the poxviruses was chosen. Among them, for example, is the smallpox pathogen, but in this case the virus was harmless to humans - especially after a series of genetic manipulations. It was supplied with the protein of lung cancer cells and injected into cancer patients. Strictly speaking, the virus in this case was only a messenger that brought the cancer protein to the immune cells, making it more noticeable to the immune system.
A total of 148 people took part in the study; half of them underwent conventional chemotherapy, the rest underwent the same, but together with a modified virus. As the researchers write in the journal Lancet Oncology, the vaccination had a positive effect. In those who received chemotherapy together with the viral vaccine, the course of the disease stabilized six months after the start of vaccination. The development of cancer slowed by 43% compared to 35% in those who were treated with conventional drugs.
Ultimately, however, there was little cause for celebration: the vaccine stabilized the disease, but did not significantly change the overall survival rate of lung cancer patients. Nevertheless, the researchers believe that they are on the right track and that this method of making the immune system work harder against cancer will still pay off. The vaccine's effect apparently stopped halfway, and now we need to figure out why this happened...