TWiPO #8 ~ Seneca Valley virus and medulloblastoma

June 09, 2011

An oncolytic virus for a common childhood brain tumor

In this eighth episode of "This Week in Pediatric Oncology" podcast hosts Dr. Tim Cripe, Dr. Lars Wagner and Dr. Lionel Chow discuss a recent publication by researchers at Baylor/Texas Children's in Houston that shows remarkable results of Seneca Valley virus SVV-001 on orthotopic mouse models of medulloblastoma.

The TWiPO hosts raise many interesting points about this research and highlight the strengths as well as limitations of this work. This exciting research provides new evidence of promise for oncolytic virus therapy for childhood tumors.

For more information about oncolytic virus trials for pediatric cancers, see a recent webinar "Oncolytic Virotherapy for Pediatric Solid Tumors" presented by the principal investigators of five clinical trials in children and sponsored by Solving Kids' Cancer.

The article discussed in this episode can be found here:

A single intravenous injection of oncolytic picornavirus SVV-001 eliminates medulloblastomas in primary tumor-based orthotopic xenograft mouse models. Yu L, Baxter PA, et al. Neuro Oncol. 2011 Jan;13(1):14-27. Epub 2010 Nov 12.

Another related article by the same group:

Treatment of invasive retinoblastoma in a murine model using an oncolytic picornavirus. Wadhwa L, Hurwitz MY, et al. Cancer Res. 2007 Nov 15;67(22):10653-6. [fulltext]

Please send questions or comments to twipo@solvingkidscancer.org