A researcher she was successfully treated for breast cancer using a technique she developed e based on two viruses she grew herself in the laboratory. Follow this “unconventional” roadas she herself defines it, was the virologist Beata Halassy of the University of Zagreb, who in the magazine Vaccine describes his case as “something not to be imitated”. The result, which the magazine Nature also talks about on his siteis raising a lively ethical debate regarding theself-experimentation.
Halassy had discovered in 2020when he was 49 years old, which a new tumor it had formed at the same site where she had previously undergone a mastectomy. In front of this relapsethe secondshe didn’t feel able to face chemotherapy again but she didn’t give up. He decided to take matters into his own hands and began to study the scientific literature exploiting her skills as a virologist. As he calibrated a therapy to his situation that today we are just starting to experimentcall viroterapia oncolitica. It happened four years ago and the tumor has not returned since then.
Oncolytic virotherapy is a emerging sector e uses viruses is to attack tumor cellsis to stimulate the immune system to attack the tumor. The clinical trials so far based on this technique, initially conducted only on tumors with metastases, are now also considering the earliest stages of tumors. One of these clinical trials, for example, is underway in the United States on cases of melanoma. However, there are no tests for breast cancer.
It was his who pushed Halassy to experiment with the technique on himself expertise in virology. He decided to lash out against his tumor due virus, one after the other: that of measles followed by one of the viruses of vesicular stomatitison which the researcher had worked in the past and both used in the experiments started at the time.
The preparation was directly injected into the tumor for two months, during which the oncologists constantly monitored the situation to intervene with chemotherapy if things went wrong. The tumor yes it is progressively reduced without serious side effects, until it was possible to remove it surgically. The researcher was subsequently treated for a year with a monoclonal antibody.
Analysis of the tumor tissue, infiltrated by immune cells called lymphocytes, showed that the therapy had worked successfully.
After a dozen rejections from scientific journals, Hallasy managed to publish her results. Despite the controversy, the researcher has no regrets about her choice and believes it is unlikely that anyone will try to imitate her because the therapy she discovered in her laboratory requires considerable scientific preparation. Now he has obtained funding to test his therapy to treat cancer in pets
