Recombinant poliovirus appears safe, active as recurrent glioblastoma treatment

The potentially useful anticancer properties of viruses are just starting to be recognized and exploited, Dan L. Longo, MD, and Lindsey R. Baden, MD, both with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, said in an editorial.

One approach is the development of oncolytic viruses that can not only directly kill tumor cells, but can also prompt an immune response against viable tumor cells, they wrote. The study by Dr. Desjardins and her colleagues describes clinical experience with PVSRIPO, a recombinant, nonpathogenic polio-rhinovirus chimera. This engineered virus targets glioblastoma by gaining cell entry through the CD155 receptor, which is expressed on solid tumors.

The survival data showed a plateau, with a 36-month survival rate of 21%, compared with 4% for a historical control cohort of patients, Dr. Longo and Dr. Baden noted.

In this study, PVSRIPO was delivered into intracranial tumors using an indwelling catheter. One of the outstanding questions with viral approaches to cancer treatment, according to the editorialists, is how local administration impacts systemic immunity in terms of recognition and elimination of remote lesions.

“Much more needs to be learned, but the clinical results to date encourage further exploration of this new treatment approach,” Dr. Longo and Dr. Baden wrote.

This summary is based on an editorial written by Dr. Longo and Dr. Baden that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Baden and Longo both reported employment by the New England Journal of Medicine as deputy editor. Dr. Baden reported grant support from the Ragon Institute, the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, and the Gates Foundation outside the submitted work and also reported involvement in HIV vaccine trials done in collaboration with NIH, HIV Vaccine Trials Network, and others.