Oncolytics: Study shows Reolysin stops tumor growth in many advanced cancers

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, June 8 - Oncolytics Biotech Inc. said Thursday that a phase 1 trial demonstrated its experimental drug Reolysin may have stopped the growth of tumors in some patients and shrunk tumors without side effects normally associated with traditional forms of cancer therapy.

Thirty patients received various intravenous dosages of Reolysin in the phase 1 trial in the United Kingdom, according to a company news release.

Billions of particles of Reolysin, derived from the naturally occurring reovirus, were administered daily to cancer patients who had failed all other cancer therapies, or for whom no viable cancer treatments exist, officials said.

The results demonstrated antitumor activity in patients with colorectal, prostate, pancreatic, bladder and non-small cell lung cancers. Two colorectal patients had tumor stabilization at three and six months, and CEA reduction (a cancer marker) of 27% and 60%, respectively, officials said.

One patient with metastatic prostate cancer had stable disease at four months, with a 50% reduction in prostate specific antigen, and extensive tumor cell death, officials said.

One patient with metastatic bladder cancer had stable disease at four months, with a minor tumor response in a metastatic lymph node lesion.

A patient with non-small cell lung cancer and a pancreatic cancer patient also each had stable disease at four months.

The study has demonstrated that when the virus invades a Ras-activated cancer cell, it proceeds to replicate until it kills the host tumor cell, officials said.

When the cancer cell dies, thousands of progeny virus particles are released, which proceed to infect and kill adjacent cancer cells. But normal cells are unharmed by reovirus infection.

More recently, a secondary immune response has been observed after reovirus treatment.

Researchers said they believe that once the reovirus infects a cancer cell, it may educate the immune system to recognize and kill that type of cancer cell.

"But there is still more to be learned about this remarkable virus," Matt Coffey, chief scientific officer of Oncolytics, said in the release.

These study results were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Atlanta.

A similar intravenous trial being conducted at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York is expected to wrap up later this year.

Other trials are expected to follow in the United Kingdom and the United States, including two trials sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, which will include a phase 2 trial for melanoma patients and a phase 1/ 2 trial for ovarian cancer patients.

Oncolytics is a Calgary, Alta., biopharmaceutical company.

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