A phase I trial of oncolytic virus in childhood brain cancer shows tolerable safety.
Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a deadly childhood brain cancer; patients survive an average of less than 1 year following diagnosis. Given the tumors' location, surgical resection is nearly impossible, and the only known efficacious treatment is radiation, without clear benefit from chemotherapy or immunotherapy. An emerging treatment for brain cancers is oncolytic viruses, which are injected directly into the tumor and can replicate within tumor cells, causing tumor-specific cell death. While early-phase clinical trials of oncolytic virus therapy have been encouraging, late-stage trials have yet to demonstrate improved survival, due in part to the complexity and cost. Here, researchers evaluated the safety of a single injection…