So, now you have a new way to try to get drugs to that tumor, correct?

Dr. Chen: That’s right. Essentially, what we are leveraging on in this strategy is for the neurosurgeon, there is no blood brain barrier.  When we actually go in and remove the tumor, we are right there with the tumor. So, with surgery, we could directly infuse drugs into the tumor so that we make sure that the drug gets into the tumor without the hindrance of the blood brain barrier. 

So, before this, with the MRI-guided gene therapy, you couldn’t tell if you were actually getting all of the tumor?

Dr. Chen: That’s exactly right.  What we are doing with this MRI-guided technology is we are mixing the drug, in this case, a virus, with a material that lights up.  So, wherever the virus is injected, that area lights up. We couldn’t do this with any other reagent, and we can’t do this in any other way. 

What kind of virus is it? 

Dr. Chen: It’s a virus that is engineered to convert a benign drug into a drug that will kill the tumor.  The virus encodes for an enzyme and this enzyme converts an antifungal drug, which is otherwise completely benign. It doesn’t do anything to your body at all, but when the drug touches the virus, the virus converts it into a drug that would then be toxic to the tumor.  So the basic idea is, it’s a two-step process.  You inject a virus, and the virus into the tumor. The virus is engineered in a way so that they only replicate in the tumors, not in normal cells.  After that’s done, you give the patient a drug, this antifungal drug called 5-FC. This drug gets through every single cell in your body, including the brain.  However, without contact with the virus, it doesn’t really do anything, so only in the area where the tumors are infected with the virus, that comes in contact with this antifungal drug do you produce an effect that will kill the tumor. 

How does the MRI-guided part of this help you do this?   

Dr. Chen: The MRI allows us to see the tumor in real time so that we know; when we put a catheter in the brain, the skull is opaque; we don’t know where it is.  The MRI allows us to know exactly where the catheter is in real time and the reason that’s important is twofold. First, it avoids the risk of the catheter ripping a blood vessel causing a stroke. So, that makes the surgery safe.  The second reason, this is very important, is by virtue of seeing where the catheter is in real time, we’ll know that the area that we deliver the drug is precisely within the tumor.

It lights up the tumor where you can actually see it, correct? 

Dr. Chen: Right. The way that’s done is that the virus is mixed with an agent called gadolinium.  That agent is bright on MRI.

Does this allow you to track what it’s doing to the tumor?  

Dr. Chen: For us to follow what it’s doing to the tumor, we have get MRIs a few months after the procedure, after the patient has gone to therapy.  In fact, we had recently gotten several images of patients who are treated and what we are able to see is that the area where the virus is injected, the tumor is melting away. 

How many people have you tried this on and are all the results shrinking the tumor? 

Dr. Chen: Well, I don’t know of all of the results.  I know that in my hands, the patients I have treated have responded very favorably. 

Is this drug FDA approved?

Dr. Chen: This is a clinical trial, which means that this drug has been reviewed by the FDA and deemed it to be safe to be delivered in a trial basis to the patients.

Is it a 2-part type of trial where you are testing the drug, but then also the MRI guided part of the delivery system?  

Dr. Chen: The MRI-guided part of the surgery has been approved as a medical device.  That is, the accuracy has been proven and it has been used extensively in a number of other types of surgery, but not in tumors.  We have adapted that technology so that we could use it to deliver drugs specifically to a tumor in a patient.

Do you see this curing these glioblastomas or do you see them buying the patients months, years? 

Dr. Chen: Well, I think this technology will be a part of a larger tool set that we have.  When we treat tumors, it’s very much like we are playing chess with the tumor cells.  For every drug we give it, the tumor cells could make a move; they could adjust in some way.  The tumor is like an organism and so we have to have a number of different tools in order for us to be able to cure a cancer.  The problem with glioblastoma is that right now, we have two tools: radiation and chemotherapy, none of which works very well.  So, the gene therapy concept and this technology allows us to have another tool so that we can make the next move against the tumor.  My personal belief is that to cure cancer, you have to have a wide range of options.  The same way heart disease requires many different types of drugs.

Is this a more targeted therapy? 

Dr. Chen: Absolutely.  I think that because the virus replicates only in the tumor, the effect of the drug would only be seen in the tumor. So in principle and in reality, this approach should be safer than chemo and radiation.  That being said, I don’t think it’s going to completely replace chemo and radiation. Once again, I think that we have to have different tools in our armamentarium for us to make a meaningful impact on our patients with brain tumors.   

Have you seen any side effects from this drug? And what’s the name of this drug?  

Dr. Chen: The drug is called 5-FC.  It’s converted by the virus, by this enzyme into something called 5-FU.  The 5-FU is a well-established chemotherapeutic drug.  5-FC is a known antifungal drug.  Have I seen any side effects? In my hands and in my patients, the answer is no.  With every new investigational agent, we brace ourselves for potential side effects, but to my pleasant surprise, there hasn’t been any so we are quite pleased.