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Targeted cancer therapy and gene therapy have been mentioned in the blue before, but oncolytic viruses are the hot young thing. For consideration in cancer treatment, an virus must replicate in and kill a high number of exclusively cancer cells, while sparing healthy tissue. A Philadelphia-based company called Neotropix has won awards for its research into a prime contender - the Seneca Valley Virus. It has been the subject of Phase I adult clinical trials, with Phase II adult and Phase I pediatric clinical trials to start this year. SVV has advantages over some other contenders in that it is a naturally occurring (lest we create a race of mutant zombies) organism and studies so far suggest it is not harmful to healthy human cells. While a number of other oncolytic viruses are being examined, NTX-010 seems able to treat a very wide range of common and rare forms of cancer, some of which are now considered uniformly fatal. In addition, unlike some other tested viruses, it can travel through the bloodstream to treat metastatic and not just local disease. Compared to the side-effects and late effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, and because many of the cancers ideal for treatment with an oncolytic virus have no surgical options, this may be the next big breakthrough.

B. G. Redman, P. Esper, Q. Pan, R. L. Dunn, H. K. Hussain, T. Chenevert, G. J. Brewer, and S. D. Merajver Phase II Trial of Tetrathiomolybdate in Patients with Advanced Kidney Cancer Clin. Cancer Res., May 1, 2003; 9(5): 1666 - 1672.

Phase II study of pomegranate juice for men with rising prostate-specific antigen following surgery or radiation for prostate cancer. Pantuck AJ, Leppert JT, Zomorodian N, Aronson W, Hong J, Barnard RJ, Seeram N, Liker H, Wang H, Elashoff R, Heber D, Aviram M, Ignarro L, Belldegrun A. Clin Cancer Res. 2006 Jul 1;12(13):4018-26. PMID: 16818701

BioVex Inc, a company developing new generation biologics for the treatment and prevention of cancer and infectious disease, announced that updated survival data from its Phase II study in metastatic melanoma will be presented at the 2009 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, taking place from May 29, 2009 - June 2, 2009 in Orlando, F

BioVex Inc, a company developing next generation biologics for the treatment and prevention of cancer and infectious disease, announced that the results from a Phase I/II combination study in previously untreated patients with head and neck cancer will be presented at the 2009 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, which will take place May 29, 2009 - June 2, 2009 in Orlando, FL.

Most head-and-neck cancers that recur locally after prior full-dose conventional radiation therapy respond to Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). These results were obtained in a Phase I/II study at the Helsinki University Hospital, Finland. The scienti