SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO AM) Sanford Health in Sioux Falls is the first site in the country for clinical trials to test a genetically-engineered virus to fight certain cancer tumors.
The Phase I immunotherapy trial is for those ages 18 and older with metastatic solid tumors that have not responded to standard treatments.
Enrollees will be injected with the virus and watched for 43 days to see what happens. The virus - veiscular stomatitis virus - is engineered to grow in cancer cells in order to destroy them and build up the body's immune system.
“Oncolytic viruses are the next wave of promising cancer immunotherapy treatments,” says Dr. Steven Powell, a medical oncologist at the Sanford Cancer Center in Sioux Falls, “We are very excited about using VSV as researchers have seen promising results using other similar viruses, such as the polio virus, in early clinical trials.”