How AI will change your life - a Futurist's Guide to a Super-Smart World - Patrick Dixon is a Global Keynote Speaker on AI, Author of 18 BOOKS, Europe's Leading Futurist with 25 year track record advising large multinationals - CALL NOW +44 7768 511390

How AI Will Change Your Life - A Futurist's Guide to a Super-Smart World - Patrick Dixon signs books and talks about key messages - future of AI, how AI will change us all, how to respond to AI in business, personal life, government. CALL +44 7768 511390

Future of Sales and Marketing in 2030: physical audience of 800 + 300 virtual at hybrid event. Digital marketing / AI, location marketing. How to create MAGIC in new marketing campaigns. Future of Marketing Keynote Speaker

TRUST is the most important thing you sell. Even more TRUE for every business because of AI. How to BUILD TRUST, win market share, retain contracts, gain customers. Future logistics and supply chain management. Futurist Keynote Speaker

Future of Artificial intelligence - discussion on AI opportunities and Artificial Intelligence threats. From AI predictions to Artificial Intelligence control of our world. What is the risk of AI destroying our world? Truth about Artificial Intelligence

How to make virtual keynotes more real and engaging - how I appeared as an "avatar" on stage when I broke my ankle and could not fly to give opening keynote on innovation in aviation for. ZAL event in Hamburg

"I'm doing a new book" - 60 seconds to make you smile. Most people care about making a difference, achieving great things, in a great team but are not interested in growth targets. Over 270,000 views of full leadership keynote for over 4000 executives

Futurist Keynote Speakers - how Futurist Keynotes transform events, change thinking, enlarge vision, sharpen strategic thinking, identify opportunities and risks. Patrick Dixon is one of the world's best known Futurist Keynote Speaker

Futurist Keynote Speaker: Colonies on Mars, space travel and how digital / Artificial Intelligence / AI will help us live decades longer - comment before Futurist keynote for 1400 at Avnet Silica event. Futurist Keynote Speaker on AI

Future of Travel and Tourism post COVID. Boom for live experiences beyond AI. What hunger for "experience" means for future aviation, airlines, hotels, restaurants, concerts halls, trends in leisure events, theme parks. Travel Industry Keynote Speaker

Quiet Quitters: 50% US workforce wish they were working elsewhere. How engage Quiet Quitters and transform to highly engaged team members. Why AI / Artificial Intelligence is not answer. How to tackle the Great Resignation. Human Resources Keynote Speaker

The Great Resignation. 50% of US workers are Quiet Quitters. They have left in their hearts, don't believe any longer in your strategy. 40% want to leave in 12 months. Connect with PURPOSE to win Quiet Quitters. Human Resources Keynote Speaker

Future of Human Resources. Virtual working, motivating hybrid teams, management, future of motivation and career development. How to develop high performance teams. HR Keynote Speaker

Speed of change often slower than people expect! I have successfully forecast major trends for global companies for over 25 years. Focus on factors driving long term changes, with agile strategies for inevitable disruptive events. Futurist Keynote Speaker

Agile leadership for Better Risk Management. Inflation spike in 2022-3 - what next? Expect more disruptive events, while megatrends will continue relentlessly to shape longer term future globally in relatively predictable ways. Futurist Keynote Speaker

Crazy customers! Changing customer expectations. Why many decisions are irrational. Amusing stories. Lessons for Leadership, Management and Marketing - Futurist Keynote Speaker VIDEO

Chances of 2 people in 70 having same birthday? Managing Risk in Banking and Financial Services. Why the greatest risks are combinations of very unlikely events, which happen far more often than you expect. Keynote speaker on risk management

Compliance is Dead. How to build trust. Reputation of banks and financial services. Compliance Risks. Why 100% compliance with regulations, ESG requirements etc is often not enough to prevent reputational damage

Life's too short to do things you don't believe in! Why passionate belief in the true value of what you are selling or doing is the number one key to success. Secret of all leadership and marketing - keynote for 1100 people in Vilnius October 2021

Future Manufacturing 5.0. Lessons from personal life for all manufacturers - why most manufacturing lags 10-15 years behind client expectations in their day to day life. Manufacturing 4.0 --> Manufacturing 5.0. Future of Manufacturing Keynote

Oncolytic Viruses - New Cure for Cancer? Facts about Oncolytic Viruses - how they target cancer cells without killing healthy tissue - health innovation and biotech Keynote Speaker

Futurist Keynote Speaker: Posts, Slides, Videos - BioTech and MedTech Keynote Speaker

Video and article explaining about oncolytic viruses for a non-technical audience.

We could be about to see the most dramatic advance in cancer treatment for 30 years. 

A new form of treatment that is relatively easy to make, has virtually no side effects, with potential to treat a wide variety of cancers, when used in combination with more traditional treatments.

That is the implication of early studies in laboratories and in humans using oncolytics, if all goes well in the next stages.

Viruses are a common cause of cancer.  So what about creating a new virus to cure cancer?  Many natural viruses are known to be “oncolytic”. They destroy cancer cells but they damage normal, healthy tissue as well.

How oncolytic viruses work to attack cancer

Scientists have taken a variety of human viruses which normally cause illness, and altered their genes so that they are able to enter human cells, but cannot activate – except in cancer cells.  

You can inject a healthy person with these altered viruses, and nothing happens. The virus particles do enter cells normally, but are unable to do anything at all, and are broken down inside the cell, completely destroyed.

However, if the same defective viruses enter cancer cells, they become fully active.  The cancer cells provide a vital piece of missing machinery, which enables the oncolytic virus to take over control of the cell.

The oncolytic virus genes give the cell instructions to make hundeds or thousands more identical virus particles.  Each cell gradually turns into a bloated virus factory, until the cell bursts, releasing large numbers of oncolytic virus particles, each of which has the ability to infect another cancer cell.  And so the cycle continues.

Several different kinds of cancer tumours have shrunk following injection of live oncolytic virus directly into the mass, while others have been treated by injecting oncolytic virus into veins.  Some results in animals have been spectacular with very high cure rates with aggressive cancers.

Oncolytic viruses to target cancer chemotherapy or radiotherapy

But this is only the beginning.  Oncolytic viruses can also be used to deliver a variety of completely new genes into cancer cells, each commanding the cell to do something different.  Results can be dramatic, when the viruses are combined with other treatments.

One such combination is with radioactive iodine, which has been used for many years to treat thyroid cancer because the thyroid gland takes up iodine from the blood.  Radioactive iodine loses its power within hours, so is safe to inject.  It is rapidly concentrated into the thyroid to produce local radiation damage for a short period.

Cancer cells from other tissues can be taught the same trick by an oncolytic virus, so that they also absorb radioactive iodine which has been linked to a protein. The virus teaches cancer cells to absorb the protein and if enough iodine is taken up by the tumour as a result, the radiation dose can destroy uninfected cancer cells as well.

Another combination is with cancer chemotherapy.  The problem with normal chemo is that every dividing cell in the body is exposed to it.  That can mean side effects with hair falling out, gut problems and damage to bone marrow.

Oncolytic viruses have been used to teach cancer cells how to split a harmless pro-drug into two pieces, one of which is a highly toxic substance.  The cancer cell soon dies, releasing a tiny dose of chemo to nearby cells so they die too.  The rest of the body is unaffected.

Multiple ways for oncolytic viruses to cure cancer

So now we have three mechanisms by which an oncolytic virus can destroy cancer cells:

1) Bursting the cell as it releases new viruses
2) Destroying the cell with radioactive iodine
3) Poisoning the cell with toxic chemotherapy

There is more. The body often recognizes that infected cells are not normal and declares war on them.  The good news is that uninfected cancer cells can get caught in the cross-fire, and killed too.

Oncolytic virus research is still at a relatively early stage.  Amgen is one of the companies furthest ahead, with Phase III clinical trials due to report results in 2013.  They paid around $1bn to buy into oncolytic virus technology in 2011 (down payment of 50%), convinced by very promising results in melanoma patients.  They are using a variant of Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV).

Another company using an altered version of HSV is Virttu Biologics.  Over 60 research papers have been published on a variant called SEPREHVIR, with 5 clinical studies completed in cancer patients.

In December 2012, the virus Rheolysin was shown to improve response to chemotherapy by over 25% in Phase III trials. 

For more on oncolytic virus research: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oncolytic_virus

http://www.virttu.com

List of published research papers on oncolytic virus HSV-1716 (Seprehvir)

Declaration of interest: after writing this article, the author became Chairman of Virttu Biologics Ltd.  The company was subsequently bought by Sorrento Therapeutics Inc in 2017.


Related news items:
Newer news items:
Older news items:


Thanks for promoting with Facebook LIKE or Tweet. Really interested to read your views. Post below.

Dan Garba
April 29, 2013 - 05:08

How and where can one get this treatent using oncolytic virus? A close relation is suffering from colon cancer that has metastasized to the small intestines and liver. So far two sugeries have been performed, and we are about to embark on another round of chemo using expensive avastine.

Is it possible to buy any of this type of treatment immediately or enrol on a trial program anywhere in the world? Is oncorine available outside China, and can it help in this case?

Join the Debate! What are your own views?


?

 

Our cookie policy

We use cookies for statistical purposes. To comply with the e-Privacy Directive we need to ask your consent to place these cookies on your computer.

Your use of this site indicates acceptance of these terms. I accept I Decline