Duke University researchers have had some success with a cancer vaccine made from a re-engineered version of the virus that causes equine encephalitis.

KYW’s John Ostapkovich reports that the Duke study, which involved 28 very sick patients, did not show unversally positive results, according to Dr. Adam Cohen, medical oncologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.  Only one patient saw dramatic improvement, but none got any worse.

But, says Cohen, the study is demonstrating exciting possibilities:

“The concept is not new.  What is new about this study is the way they sort of re-engineered this virus to try to make it safe and then to show that it’s actually able to stimulate an immune response in these cancer patients who have been heavily pre-treated with chemotherapy.”

Which normally reduces the immune response.

In this case, researchers replaced the virus’ genes for replication with a marker found in many cancers.  Immune cells went after the marker both in the virus and the cancer.

Dr. Cohen says this may eventually become another weapon in the cancer-fighting arsenal.