A trial of a potential new brain cancer treatment has shown that a virus injected directly into the bloodstream can reach tumors deep inside the brain and switch on the body's own defense system to attack them.
The trial involved just nine patients, but scientists said that if the results could be replicated in larger studies, the naturally occurring "reovirus" could be developed into an effective immunotherapy for people with aggressive brain tumors.
"This is the first time it has been shown that a therapeutic virus is able to pass through the brain-blood barrier," said Adel Samson, a medical oncologist at the University of Leeds' Institute of Cancer and Pathology who co-led the work.