Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Dickson Despommier, and Brad Thompson
Vincent, Alan, and Dickson chat with Brad Thompson, CEO of Oncolytics Biotech, about using reovirus to treat cancer.
Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV #131 (42 MB .mp3, 97 minutes).
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Links for this episode:
- Transcript of this episode (pdf)
- Patrick Lee’s path to reolysin
- Reoviruses commonly infect humans
- Reovirus at ViralZone
- Onyx-411, an anti-tumor adenovirus
- BioVex, developers of OncoVEX GM-CSF
- This Week in Pediatric Oncology – TWiPO (iTunes)
- TWiV on Facebook
- Letters read on TWiV 131
Weekly Science Picks
Dickson – Angels and Insects
Alan – Science Buddies
Vincent – Emerging Diseases: The Importance of Early Warning and Surveillance (YouTube)
Listener Pick of the Week
Josh – Prof. Racaniello’s Virology course on iTunes
Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv.
Can reovirus therapy also be effective against hematologic cancers, like leukemias, or would it only work for solid tumors?
I asked Brad Thompson and he replied: Reo works well in the lab
against leukemias. We are discussing with the NCI a request by them to
run a REO study on leukemia.
Indeed, it appears that the NCI is going to sponsor a myeloma trial: http://bit.ly/1iEqFbp (Thank god national cancer institutes funding, which is out of the purview of wall street fickleness.)
A little behind on my listening but this is a fantastic podcast this week. Hearing the tale of the oncolytic Reo story was great. And hearing it from someone who has been on both sides of the bench and boardroom is pretty cool. Keep it up!
Very interesting, I am currently taking virology with Dr. Isern at FGCU and listening to the TWiV really helps me in the class.
Glad that TWiV helps! We did a live TWiV at FGCU last year – see TWiV #111.
This episode was really interesting. Any plans to interview some of the proponents of other Oncolytic viruses? (Maybe someone from Jennerex, for example.) As a layman, I’m curious to know if the several oncolytic viruses under development complement or compete with each other.
Update: In Dec 2012 Oncolytics has released some preliminary data, with statistical significance (p=.03) for shrinking metastatic tumors at 6-weeks into treatment. The gold-standard effect on overall survival will not be available until the data matures sometime in 2013.