NPR

Doctors Try Genetically Modified Poliovirus As Experimental Brain Cancer Treatment

Duke University researchers says some patients with brain cancer survived long after receiving treatment with a weakened poliovirus. But the response rate was limited and there were side effects.
Poliovirus, long a scourge, has been modified by Duke University researchers for experimental use as a brain cancer treatment.

A genetically modified poliovirus may help some patients fight a deadly form of brain cancer, researchers report.

The experimental treatment seems to have extended survival in a small group of patients with glioblastoma who faced a grim prognosis because standard treatments had failed, Duke University researchers say.

"I've been doing this for 50 years and I've never seen results like this," says , the director emeritus of the The Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at the Duke Cancer Institute, who

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from NPR

NPR3 min read
Apple Shows Its Steepest Quarterly Decline In IPhone Sales Since Pandemic's Outset
The 10% drop in year-over-year iPhone sales for the January-March period is latest sign of weakness in a product that generates most of Apple's revenue.
NPR5 min readAmerican Government
Six Months Out From The Election, Wisconsin Students Weigh Voting For Biden
Wisconsin's young voters — who have turned out in big numbers in recent elections — are key for either candidate to win the state. But Biden is facing some skepticism on the state's college campuses.
NPR4 min readInternational Relations
Senior UN Official Says Northern Gaza Is Now In 'Full-blown Famine'
Cindy McCain, the American director of the U.N. World Food Program, became the most prominent official so far to declare that trapped civilians in northern Gaza had gone over the brink into famine.

Related Books & Audiobooks