Recently, the authoritative medical journal "British Journal of Hematology" reported a miraculous case: after a patient with advanced cancer was infected with the new crown virus, the tumor disappeared...
A 61-year-old man inadvertently discovers that he has advanced cancer:
He was originally a kidney failure patient and was on hemodialysis. In 2020, his lymph nodes swelled and he lost weight, and was hospitalized for it, eventually diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma.
This is a rare form of lymphoma, accounting for only 8 to 11 percent of all lymphomas, but has a higher cure rate, with a 5-year survival rate of 75 percent [1].
After the cancer was diagnosed, something even more unfortunate came.
He went to the coronavirus nucleic acid test because of breathing difficulties and wheezing, and the result was positive. He's a COVID-19 patient again! He received supportive care (e.g., oxygen, rest, nutritional supplementation, etc.) in the hospital, and after 11 days of hospitalization, he went home to recuperate.
After 4 months, a miracle happened!
The doctor's examination found that the tumor in his body was actually subsiding!
- The lymph nodes that can be touched are getting smaller;
- PET-CT scan found that the lymph nodes in the body are also fading (see below for a comparison of the front and back);
- Levels of Epstein-Barr virus are also decreasing (EPV infection is thought to be associated with lymphoma).
So here's the problem —
In this case, there are two possibilities for tumor regression after infection with the new crown virus -
1. Magical immune response
This is also the reason why the authors of the paper speculate: after the new crown virus enters the body, the patient's immune system is activated, killing the virus at the same time, but also killing the tumor cells in the body.
This is not the first time this phenomenon has been detected, and there have been similar cases before: a lymphoma patient infected with the new crown virus [2] has also disappeared from the body.
Image source: Stand Cool Helo
This method of mobilizing the autoimmune system to destroy tumors, known as immunotherapy, has also been fully used in clinical practice.
The first to use a similar approach was Dr. William Kohler of the United States, known as the "father of tumor immunotherapy".[3]
In 1891, he injected streptococcus into an inoperable cancer patient and his condition improved. He tried a similar approach to treating two osteosarcoma patients, and although the tumors also shrank, the patients died of infection.
Considering the dangers of injecting live streptococcus, he used inactivated streptococci to mix with another bacterium to make "Coli toxin". Over the next 40 years, Coley injected more than a thousand cancer patients with the toxin, all of which reported excellent results, especially for bone and soft tissue sarcomas.
Because Colly did not understand the reasons at the time, and did not produce a standard method of use of Colly toxin, many doctors used this method to treat but did not achieve the effect he claimed, nor did they recognize his results.
Today, we stimulate the immune system of tumor patients through safer, more specific foreign factors.
Cancer therapeutic vaccines use certain proteins in tumor cells to stimulate the immune system, producing antibodies or immune cells that recognize tumor cells that have these proteins.
Recruit directly to the immune system, that is, inject antibodies/immune cells into the body. For example, CAR-T cell therapy (in vitro culture of immune T cells, and then into the patient's body to kill tumor cells) and PD-1 monoclonal antibodies.
2. The new coronavirus may be an oncolytic virus
The second possible reason is that the new crown virus directly hurts tumor cells and is a tumorolytic virus.
We know that viruses cannot survive on their own, and that after infecting a human body, they must enter human cells and produce offspring. This process causes the cells to rupture.
If a virus infects the human body and can enter the tumor cells, thereby killing tumor cells, but has no effect on normal cells, then the virus has an anti-tumor effect, known as "oncolytic virus".
Drugs developed using oncolytic viruses are called oncolytic virus drugs, which is a popular direction in the field of tumor treatment.
The earliest reported case was in 1896, when a woman had leukemia in remission after she was suspected of contracting the flu [4].
Hepatitis virus is the earliest virus used in tumor treatment. In a 1949 clinical trial of hepatitis B virus treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma, 60 percent of subjects were infected with hepatitis B, while the tumor lasted only one week and some people died [4].
In the 1970s and 1980s, clinical trials of oncolytic viruses were nearly stagnant due to safety, efficacy, and regulatory issues [4].
Finally, genetic engineering saved this technique by eliminating the pathogenicity of natural viruses, improving targeting, and reducing the killing of normal cells, specifically targeting tumor cells [4].
In 2005, China approved the first oncolytic virus therapy, using transgenic adenovirus H101 for the treatment of head and neck cancer[5].
In 2015, the United States approved oncolytic virus therapy for the treatment of melanoma using attenuated herpes simplex virus [6].
Reading this, many people will ask, after the new crown virus infection, the tumor in the body disappears, can cancer patients deliberately infect and attack the poison?
Not really!
Direct infection with natural viruses is very likely to cause tumor patients to suffer from infectious diseases at the same time, and even die of infection.
The greatest value of this case is for the reference of the scientific research community, but it has no clinical significance and has no value for promoting to other patients.
In the face of the new crown virus, cancer patients need to pay more attention. Previous studies have shown that patients with underlying medical conditions have a higher mortality rate after infection with COVID-19. Moreover, at present, domestic vaccines are not recommended for malignant tumor patients.
Review expert: Luo Tianming | Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University
Special Author: Jiang Yongyuan | Master of Internal Medicine, Third Military Medical University
bibliography
Ge Junbo, Xu Yongjian, Wang Chen. Internal Medicine (9th ed.). Beijing:People's Medical Publishing House.] 2018.
[2] Challenor S, Tucker D. SARS-CoV-2-induced remission of Hodgkin lymphoma. Br J Haematol. 2021. published on line.
[3] McCarthy EF. The toxins of William B. Coley and the treatment of bone and soft-tissue sarcomas. Iowa Orthop J. 2006;26:154-158.
[4] Kelly E, Russell SJ. History of oncolytic viruses: genesis to genetic engineering. Mol Ther. 2007;15(4):651-659.
[5] K Garber.China approves world's first oncolytic virus therapy for cancer treatment. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2006;98(5):298-300.
[6] FDA. HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESCRIBING INFORMATION.
https://www.fda.gov/media/94129/download
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