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Unusual treatment shows promise for kids with brain tumors
MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Chief Medical Writer
April 11, 2021
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1of6This 2016 photo provided by the family shows Jake Kestler, center, with his parents, Gallite and Josh, and his sister, Lily, a month before he was diagnosed with brain cancer. Jake received a genetically-modified virus-based treatment for the cancer when he was 12. He lived for a year and four months after that, long enough to celebrate his bar mitzvah, go with his family to Hawaii and see a brother be born, said his father, Josh Kestler, of Livingston, N.J. Jake s parents started a foundation, Trail Blazers for Kids, to further research. (Family Photo via AP)APShow MoreShow Less
Marilynn Marchione April 11, 2021 - 11:01 PM
For decades, a deadly type of childhood cancer has eluded scienceâs best tools. Now doctors have made progress with an unusual treatment: Dripping millions of copies of a virus directly into kidsâ brains to infect their tumors and spur an immune system attack.
A dozen children treated this way lived more than twice as long as similar patients have in the past, doctors reported Saturday at an American Association for Cancer Research conference and in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Although most of them eventually died of their disease, a few are alive and well several years after treatment something virtually unheard of in this situation.
Using virus to kill child brain tumors ‘a critical step,’ UAB specialist says
Updated 6:54 AM;
Today 6:54 AM
In this Aug. 5, 2019 photo provided by Children’s Of Alabama, Dr. Gregory Friedman, a childhood cancer specialist, looks through a microscope at a laboratory in Birmingham, Ala. Friedman is leading a study to treat a deadly type of childhood cancer with a treatment that involves infusing viruses directly into the brain to spur an immune system response to the cancerous cells. (Denise McGill/Children’s Of Alabama via AP)AP
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For decades, a deadly type of childhood cancer has eluded science’s best tools. Now doctors have made progress with an unusual treatment: Dripping millions of copies of a virus directly into kids’ brains to infect their tumors and spur an immune system attack.