HARMLESS VIRUS COULD BE ANSWER TO CANCER CURE

[Guest guest]

Harmless Virus Could Be an Answer to Cancer

By _MELLY ALAZRAKI_ (http://www.dailyfinance.com/writers/melly-alazraki/)

Posted 11:00 AM 02/06/10 _Technology_

(http://www.dailyfinance.com/category/technology/) , _Healthcare_

(http://www.dailyfinance.com/category/healthcare/)

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You'd think that infecting a cancer patient with a virus would be the last

thing a doctor would want to do. But what if it was a virus that attacks

and kills cancer cells? That's exactly the premise that led to the founding

of Oncolytics Biotech (_ONCY_

(http://www.dailyfinance.com/quotes/oncolytics-biotech-inc-common-shares/oncy/na\

s) ), a Calgary-based biotechnology

company. It's about to begin Phase 3 trials that could pave the way for a

marketable cancer treatment based on this technology in two years, says CEO Dr.

Brad (pictured) in an interview with DailyFinance.

" We're working on a product that is widely applicable to quite a few

indications of cancer and is based on a naturally occurring virus that's

commonly found in the environment and that happens to have a preference of

growing

in cancer cells as opposed to growing in normal tissue. "

It's called a reovirus (short for Respiratory Enteric Orphan virus), and

it's a type which most people pick up by age 12 through inhalation or

contact that causes few or no health problems. But when the virus enters cancer

cells, it kills them.

On-Off Switch

Viruses, naturally, prefer cells that can't fight them off. And these

cancer cells all have a common characteristic: They have a certain growth

pathway, called the Ras pathway, turned on. " If a cell doesn't have that

pathway

turned on, nothing happens, so it's like an on-off switch for the virus's

growth, " explained. In the human body, very few normal cells have

that Ras pathway turned on, and those die in the same amount of time the

virus takes to kill them, so the body is not affected. " And that's where the

story would end if only these few cells had the Ras pathway turned on all

the time, " added. " But it happens to be the state in most cancers. "

" When the Ras pathway is turned on, it turns off the virus defense

mechanism in the cell so the virus can go in and replicate itself, "

continued. It keeps replicating until its host -- the cancer cell -- is

overwhelmed and dies, which happens within three days.

" Anywhere between two-thirds to 75% of the primary carcinomas -- ovarian,

prostate, non-small cell lung cancer and so on -- actually have that

pathway turned on, " said. " In metastatic disease, which spreads beyond

the primary tumor, it's between 95% to 100% that have the Ras pathway. So you

have a disease that has this pathway, and a virus that for other reasons

requires that pathway to grow. "

Infecting the Cancer

That's where Oncolytics and its drug, Reolysin, come in play. Reolysin is

" a variant of the virus we found in nature, " explained . The

treatment " is rather straightforward, " he said. It involves five days of

intravenous injections, and the side effects are few: Most commonly, patients

run a

small fever and feel a little tired.

Once the virus has killed the cancer cells, " the body actually clears the

virus pretty effectively, " explained, because the body mounts a

normal immune response to the infection. " Normally, the latest we ever find

the virus in the body is a couple of weeks after the first injection, and

then it's completely gone, " he says.

The company was founded in 1998 after several scientists at a virology lab

in the University of Calgary started having problems growing the virus. As

they screened it against established cells they found the correlation with

the Ras pathway. " And then this little light bulb went on. Somebody said,

wait a minute, that can be useful in oncology, " tells.

lost his mother and an uncle to cancer, and himself got melanoma.

" Right after that, while the surgery was still healing in my leg, I got a

call from a colleague of mine in the Alberta government asking me whether I

would talk to this group of researchers at the University of Calgary who

were working on a virus. I had very heightened sensitivity to cancer at that

time and had expertise in the area. So I got a close look at it, and that's

how I got involved in it. "

" That's how Oncolytics started, " he added. " In less than a year, we went

public, cross-listed and did six financings. "

Phase 3 Clinical Trial

The company has completed about a dozen early-phase clinical trials so

far, and has seven to eight ongoing for a broad range of cancers, including

melanoma, lung and ovarian. But the real test will be the upcoming Phase 3

clinical trial for head and neck cancer.

The study is designed to combine Reolysin with the standard chemotherapy

care for head and neck. In _earlier studies_

(http://www.integratir.com/newsrelease.asp?news=2131022906 & ticker=T.ONC & lang=EN & \

ny=on) , the response rate

to the treatment was 42% when Reolysin was added to common therapy, much

higher than the average 10% response rate for the disease.

If that response rate holds up, no doubt patients would be eager for the

drug to reach the market. " We could be selling product by 2012, if

everything lines up properly, " said . " The sad part about head and neck

patients is that you know very quickly whether your product works on them or

not. The patients we're looking at have a median life expectancy of 4.5

months, so you don't have to wait much to know whether your product had benefit

for the patients. "

What's Next?

" The real question for us is what comes after that, " added.

" We're probably going to have to go after something that has a much larger

market than head and neck and will also be a much larger clinical program than

head and neck. "

" Oncology is a very competitive, crowded space, " acknowledged

when asked about competitors. But he added that Oncolytics is looking at

diseases that aren't getting much attention elsewhere. This also seems to be

good news for patients with those diseases.

For now, Oncolytics has no bigger-company partners, which is rare for a

biotech in advanced stages of clinical trials. But Big Pharma has shown

interest. " There are very few unpartnered Phase 3 oncology products. So we have

certainly raised the interest of a number of our big pharma colleagues. "

But Oncolytics claims to be in no hurry and prefers to partner when it's

best for the company and shareholders. indicates that a partnership

could be announced by the end of the Phase 3 study.

Like all small biotechs, Oncolytics is facing challenges, most notably the

possibility that its experimental drug will not work in late-stage trials

despite positive early indications. But if anything, it's encouraging to

see companies always in a quest to find improved treatments for a deadly

disease.