Landmark news for healthcare staffing everywhere: Researchers at the Mayo Clinic cleared an incurable, widespread blood cancer in a Minnesota woman with a massive dose of the measles vaccine, enough to inoculate 10 million people.
For 10 years, Stacy Erholtz, 49, battled multiple myeloma, a deadly cancer of the blood. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic, located in Rochester, Minnesota, said she had received every type of chemotherapy drug available and had undergone two stem cell transplants, yet time and again she relapsed.
She underwent the clinical trial last year using virotherapy, where researchers re-engineered the measles virus in a single intravenous dose, making it toxic to cancer cells yet sparing normal, healthy cells.
“My mindset was I didn’t have any other options available, so why wouldn’t I do it?” Erholtz told KARE. “It was the easiest treatment by far with very few side effects. I hope it’s the future of treating cancer infusion.”
Erholtz, who was one of two patients in the study, is now in complete remission, having been free of the disease for more than six months.
Mayo Clinic hematologist, Steven Russell, led the study and said the concept had been tested in mice, but never in humans.
“It’s a huge milestone in that regard,” Russell told USA Today. “We have known for some time viruses act like a vaccine. If you inject a virus into a tumor you can provoke the immune system to destroy that cancer and other cancers. This is different, it puts the virus into bloodstream, it infects and destroys the cancer, debulks it, and then the immune system can come and mop up the residue.”
Simply put, the measles virus bind to cancer cells and use them to replicate. The process causes other cancer cells to join together and explode. There’s also some evidence that suggests the virus stimulates the patient’s immune system, allowing it to recognize and eradicate any recurring cancer cells.
Russell believes the treatment was a success because they pushed the dose higher than others have ever done – 100 billion infectious units instead of the standard 10,000 units. The amount of virus that’s in the bloodstream is the driver of how much binds to the tumors. The other patient’s cancer did not respond to the treatment.
For healthcare staffing, despite being a small clinical trail, there’s little doubt that it is a medical milestone, as the vaccine is not just good for Erholtz’s virus – it’s good for every virus. Russell is optimistic that his team can transform this research into a single shot cure.
Cancers worldwide
Each year globally, about 14 million people are diagnosed with cancer and 8 million people die from the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most commonly diagnosed cancers worldwide are lung cancer (13 percent of all cancers), breast cancer (12 percent) and colorectal cancer (10 percent).
Multiple myeloma is a cancer of plasma cells in the bone marrow, which also causes soft tissue or skeletal tumors, according to the Mayo Clinic news release. It is rarely cured.
Meanwhile, Mayo researchers are also testing the measles virus’s effectiveness at fighting brain, ovarian, head and neck cancers and mesothelioma.
The Mayo is moving immediately into a phase two clinical trial that will involve more patients with the goal of FDA approval within four years. Travel nurse professionals with patients who might be interested in the upcoming clinic trail can direct them to this page.
While further investigation is warranted, those in the healthcare staffing should stay tuned to the news.