Beva Halassy discovered that by 2020, at the age of 49, that she had breast cancer at the position that had been removed from the breast.This was the second recurrence there since her left chest was removed, and she could not face another chemotherapy.

Halassy has studied documents and decided to carry out the unproven treatment.A disease report was published in the magazineVaccinesOn August 1, Halassy has founded a way to perform a treatment called viral therapy to kill cancer (OVT) to help treat her own stage 3 cancer.She had no cancer in 4 years.

Emerging therapy

OVT is an emerging cancer treatment area that uses viruses to attack cancer cells and stimulate the immune system against them.Most OVT clinical trials have so far in the final stage, metastatic cancer, but in the past few years, they have been aimed at the disease in the earlier stage.A OVT, called T-VEC, has been approved in the United States to treat metastatic melanoma, but there is no approved OVT agent to treat breast cancer at any stage,Anywhere in the world.

Halassy emphasized that she was not an OVT expert, but her expertise in culturing and refining viruses in the laboratory gave her confidence to try this treatment.She chose to target her tumor with two different viruses - a measles virus that was followed by an blisters (VSV).Both pathogens are known to be infected with cells that her tumors originate and have been used in OVT clinical trials.A measles virus that has been tested against metastatic breast cancer.

Halassy had previous work experience with both viruses and both had good safety records.The measles that she chose to be widely used in the vaccine for children and the VSV strain caused, the worst, the symptoms of mild influenza (ie VSV also have very weak poison).

During a two -month period, a colleague conducted a new research material for Halassy prepared, injected directly into her tumor.Her cancer doctors agreed to follow her in the course of self -treatment, so she could switch to normal chemotherapy if any problem occurred.

This method seems effective: Independent image analysis shows that the tumor size is significantly reduced from 2.47 ± 0.06cm at the beginning to 0.91cm3, reaching the pathological size of the tumor is cutcancel.In addition to the change in size, the breast tumor also changes from a hard note, fixed into a smaller, softer mobile note.In other words, it peels off the damaged chest muscles and skin, making it easier to remove surgery.

Ultrasound images show a similar model.Compared to the initial tumor, the tumor is less negative and less spines, the periphery is clearly and significantly flat.

During the OVT process, Halassy did not encounter any serious side effects.Fever and stiffness only developed after the first VSV injection but completely out of the next 3 days.Everything is on the right track.

Tumor analysis after removal shows that the tumor has been completely contaminated with immune cells called lymphocytes, showing that OVT has worked as expected and stimulated Halassy's immune system to attack Halassy.Both viruses and tumor cells.Halassy said: "There is definitely immune reaction."After the surgery, she was treated for a year with anti -cancer drugs Trastuzumab.

Source and photo: Nature