Scientists at Ohio State University claim that the virus, which is another version of the herpes simplex virus, is injected into the tumor; here the virus enters the cancer cells and destroys them.
Nevertheless, the treatment's success is limited since immune cells move towards the tumor to attack the virus a few hours after the injection.
A chemotherapeutic drug named cyclophosphamide is known to exhaust these immune cells. As a result, the anti-cancer virus has a chance to multiply more uniformly inside the tumor, which, in turn, wipes out more cancer cells.
The researchers report that the drug decreases the action of immune cells known as "killer cells and macrophages;" these are incidentally the human body's first defense mechanism against infections.
The study found that the virus and the drug are not ready for treatment on humans yet. Scientist will require more study and testing via clinical trials.
Lead Researcher E. Antonio Chiocca, professor and chair of neurological surgery and director of OSU's Dardinger center for neuro-oncology told Asia News International, "Our findings suggest that we can use this drug to limit the action of these early responding immune cells, giving the virus time to grow and destroy the tumor."
He added, "They also suggest that the drug may allow us to temporarily inhibit just this early immune response, making it unnecessary to totally suppress the immune system when using this treatment."
The study is published in the August 22 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
