A virus that hunts ovarian cancer: four of nine women respond — and for two, the cancer disappears

Platinum-resistant ovarian cancer is one of the hardest diagnoses in oncology: the standard chemotherapy has stopped working, and options run out fast. In Helsinki, TILT Biotherapeutics has been testing a different weapon — an engineered oncolytic virus, TILT-123, designed to infect tumour cells and rouse the immune system — given with the immunotherapy pembrolizumab and a chemotherapy drug. In early Phase 1b results from the PROTA study, presented at the ESMO congress in Madrid, four of the nine women whose results could be assessed responded to the treatment. Two of them went on to complete responses, where scans find no cancer at all; one response had lasted twelve months and counting, and another held for 21 months. In all, the disease was controlled in 78% of assessed patients, and the combination was well tolerated, with no dose-limiting side effects. 'We have been struck by both the high frequency of responses and the durable nature of those responses,' said lead investigator Dr Matthew Block of the Mayo Clinic. It is early and the group is small — but for women told the standard drugs had failed, durable responses are exactly the news that matters.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation