Researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City have successfully treated triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) in petri dishes and in mouse models with a method based upon a herpes simplex virus. The study was reported at the 2011 Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons.
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a particularly aggressive type of breast cancer that is responsible for up to 20 percent of all cases and has a lower survival rate than other breast cancers. TNBC is more common in younger women (under the age of 35) and isn't usually diagnosed until it's advanced. Well-known Fox News reporter Jennifer Griffin has undergone treatment for TNBC.
"Triple-negative breast cancer patients are in dire need of targeted therapies," according to Sepideh Gholami, M.D., a research fellow at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. "Although these tumors respond to a variety of chemotherapies, they have a high recurrence and metastatic rate."
Patients with TNBC lack three types of receptors that allow other breast cancers to be treated with hormonal therapies such as tamoxifen and Herceptin. Victims of triple-negative breast cancer are treated with a combination of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy — usually at higher doses than used to treat other types.
In the study, Dr. Gholami and her colleagues examined TNBC cell lines and infected them with a herpes simplex virus called NV1066. After treatment with the virus, more than 90 percent cell kill was achieved in all cell lines within a week.
Furthermore, the researchers injected TNBC cells into laboratory mice. After treating the mouse models with the virus, and measuring the change in the tumors over 20 days, they found that the tumors had largely disappeared.
