Potential cancer cures might help us in my lifetime or after.

As reported by the Montreal Gazette on March 29, 2010, a small biotech company in Calgary, Canada, believes it is on the brink of changing the world of existing cancer treatments to selectively target, invade and crush diseased cells.

Oncolytics Biotech Inc. is preparing to enter Phase 3 of clinical trials of Reolysin, a cancer-busting virus that has produced startlingly positive results in tests leading up to this next – and most expensive – phase. The treatment uses a virus that doesn’t make humans sick, but does attract something called a Ras-activated cancer cell, a metabolic defect found in about two-thirds of all cancers, including breast, ovarian and small-cell lung cancer. Oncolytics’ therapy has enormous potential.

For a drug to reach the market, it generally has to go through extensive research and testing on animals, then four phases of controlled clinical trials on humans. Results of controlled, multi-centre trials during this period provide a clear assessment of how effective a drug is, making or breaking years, often decades, of research.

The treatment involves infecting patients with the virus through intravenous therapy in combination with paclitaxel and carboplatin. The virus enters all the cells of the patient’s body but only targets cancer cells, invading and killing them in two to three days. The other drugs help by getting the virus around the body’s immune system, which will try to get rid of it.

Industry observers note that while Oncolytics’ patient trial numbers are small, their results have been good enough to attract the Texas centre’s attention and funding. The market is a multibillion-dollar one.

We’ll wait and we’ll hope.