Word: ganciclovir
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...herpes virus and injected it into the brain. Because virtually the only cells that divide in the brain are tumor cells, the retroviruses infected them alone, inserting the herpes gene into their nuclei. As this gene expressed itself, it made the tumor cells sensitive to the herpes drug ganciclovir. When the drug was then administered to the patient, says Anderson, it "made the tumor cells commit suicide." But here there were troublesome side effects...
...radical though still experimental technique may someday help treat brain cancer. Doctors have used genetic engineering to make tumor cells sensitive to the antiviral drug ganciclovir. When they subsequently administered the drug to patients, five out of seven improved. More extensive tests are in the works...
...into a mouse-leukemia virus that has been rendered harmless by genetic engineering, and insert the altered virus directly into the brain tumor. The virus, as is its nature, will promptly invade the nucleus of the tumor cells, endowing them with the herpes gene and making them susceptible to ganciclovir, an anti-herpes drug. The patient will then be given the drug, which should kill both the virus and the tumor cells...
Beginning in 1984, the FDA permitted the Syntex pharmaceutical firm to give doctors free ganciclovir, a drug used to treat eye infections that frequently blind AIDS patients, under a special program that allows "compassionate use" of unproven drugs. Doctors who have dispensed the drug are convinced that it works, but all the conventional controlled studies have not been done. Nonetheless, the FDA last week approved ganciclovir for full marketing and sales. The agency also gave the go-ahead for wider distribution of another unproven drug, erythropoietin, which is used in cases of AIDS-associated anemia...
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