Baylor Opens Up Options!

Our meeting this morning with Dr. Neumanitis at Baylor for Clinical trials is promising. There are two clinical trials we are shooting for right now. The first is called OncoVex, it's a vaccine that is injected into a tumor site and is suppose to shrink the tumors. Clinical jargon at: http://www.biovex.com/oncovex.html

In a press release, the researchers claim that OncoVEX is more potent than a regular herpes virus, enabling it to operate as an effective "oncolytic" -- or cancer-killing -- agent. The engineered virus is designed to target only harmful cancer cells, leaving the surrounding healthy tissue intact.
Scientists further reconfigured the virus by inserting an extra immune-stimulating gene, called GM-CSF, into its DNA. By adding the gene, the virus stimulates the body's own natural immune defenses into attacking stray tumor cells that might survive initial treatment with the virus. In this way, they hope to reduce the threat that localized cancers might spread to other body parts.
To date, Dr. Hu and her colleagues have conducted preliminary clinical trials using OncoVEX in 26 British patients afflicted with late-stage skin, breast, head, neck or colorectal cancers.
Two weeks after injecting anywhere from one to three doses of the modified herpes virus directly into the tumors, biopsies displayed evidence of "considerable" cancer cell destruction among all the various types of cancers.
According to the researchers, these findings suggest the addition of the GM-CSF gene is initiating the hoped-for protective immune response.If he gets on this trial, he will have a short stay in the hospital for the first injection. Then he goes to the center every 2 weeks for an injection and no hospital stay. They will be able to tell within 4wks if it's working and he will be on it for a long time.

Second trial we don't have details on yet, but it's melanoma specific and another immunotherapy. We will know more later this week. Please pray that Karl gets accepted as we hope he will.