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A new type of cancer therapy that uses a common cold sore virus to infect and destroy harmful cells shows promise in early human trials, say scientists from Imperial College London. In the ongoing safety trial, run by the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, one in three patients responded positively to the drug, RP2.

Lead researcher Prof Kevin Harrington spoke to Newshour to explain how it works. "We've taken a cold sore virus, we've genetically modified it taking the genes that allow it to cause cold sores and replaced those with a series of genes that express human proteins to activate the immune system

"We've added the capability for it to manufacture inside the tumour a drug that's a licensed immuno-therapy drug that's given to patients," he adds. "To see one in three patients who received just the virus on its own have deep, long lasting and clinically meaningful responses was really remarkable to us."

The next phase of the trials will be to test larger groups of patients to glean more quantifiable results, with the hope of getting the new therapy approved.

(Photo: Herpes Simplex virus structure, illustration. Credit: Getty Images)

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