With the combination of myxoma virus and medications that suppress the immune system, it is possible to beat Glioblastoma multiforme - the most common and most lethal form of brain tumor, known to medicine.
According to Dr. Peter Forsythe from the Center for Cancer Research "Moffitt" this therapy is effective even in the stage of the disease that many physicians would accept for the terminal. Another big plus of successful research is that the new treatment removes one of the most serious obstacles exist to date in the treatment of brain cancer: resistance to temozolomide.
The new therapy is seen as a "target" for the oncolytic virus invades and destroys only the cancer cells, while chemotherapy affect any tissue of the patient. Myxoma virus that causes virulent diseases in rabbits will be used together with the immunosuppressant rapamycin.
The precise mechanism by which rapamycin affects the infectious process in tumor cells is not yet well understood, but it is certainly effective - application in laboratory tests contribute to the destruction of more than 89% of the tumor cells by the virus.
Therapy is now a candidate for clinical trials in humans, but the members of the research group carried out the study were confident of success. Florida State University, Texas, Calgary and the Center for Cancer Research of Ottawa devoted his most brilliant oncologists who are on track to achieve a revolution in the treatment of brain cancer.