Barcelona, November 27, 2020 – A team of researchers from SJD BarcelonaA team of researchers from SJD BarcelonaChildren’s Hospital and the biotechnology company VCN Biosciences, a Grifols company,has developed a world-first treatment which has prevented a child, who hadalready lost an eye to retinal cancer, from losing the other eye and becomingcompletely blind. As a result, Félix, who travelled from Venezuela to Barcelonaspecifically for the treatment, is now disease-free and retains his visual acuity, allowinghim to walk and play just as before. The treatment, which was administered as part ofa clinical trial, consists in injecting a genetically modified virus into the tumour-affectedeye. This virus can select, attack and destroy cancer cells.
Félix was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma (a cancer of the retina which affectedboth his eyes) when he was only a few months old. At two years old, having already lostone eye as a result of the disease, the boy travelled with his mother to Barcelona withthe help of the Fundación Simón Bolivar [Simón Bolivar Foundation] to receive treatmentatSJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital, which was able to save his other eye and his sight.
The doctors who treated him were able to deactivate the tumour using intra-arterialchemotherapy treatment. Eight months later, however, he had a relapse which meanthe needed to return to Barcelona. It was then that the doctors at SJD BarcelonaChildren’s Hospital understood that the tumour was no longer responding to standardtreatment and suggested that the boy participate in a clinical trial to assess the safetyandefficacy of the VCN-01 oncolytic virus against chemotherapy-resistant retinal cancer.
The treatment Félix received is a derivative of the adenovirus―a common virus thatnormally causes cold symptoms, and which is now being used by some researchers todevelop a vaccine for COVID-19―that has been modified in the VCN Bioscienceslaboratory to enable it to identify, infect and multiply inside cancer cells. This means thatthe virus can identify and selectively attack cancer cells while leaving healthycells unharmed.
The development of this new retinal cancer treatment is the result of five years ofresearch, and it highlights the importance of translational research (transferringknowledge from hospitals to laboratories and vice versa) which takes place at SJDBarcelona Children’s Hospital. A year ago, this research made the front page of theprestigious journal Science Translational Medicine, and received one of the mostprestigious paediatric oncology awards in the world, the Odile Schweisguth prize.
Félix’s situation has shown the therapeutic effectiveness of the VCN-01 oncolytic virus inthis indication for the first time, but more patients are required in the clinical trial in orderto confirm whether the administered dose is the most suitable to ensure effectiveness.Candidates for participation in the study are children who have retinoblastomawhich has not responded to standard treatments.
A cancer that is diagnosed in 8,000 children across the world every year
Retinoblastoma is the most common eye tumour in children. It is diagnosed inaround 8,000 children every year worldwide. This cancer is triggered by the retinaldevelopment process, during the first few years of the child’s life. Currently, wheneverpreservation of the eye is indicated, affected children at SJD Barcelona Children’sHospital are treated with intra-arterial chemotherapy as the first option. A long, thincatheter is inserted into their femoral artery, in the groin, and guided to the ophthalmicartery in order to locally administer the chemotherapy once there. In some cases,chemotherapy is also injected into the eye, in the vitreous humour.
In some cases, however, the tumour does not respond to these treatments anduntil now ophthalmologists did not have any other option than to enucleate the affectedeye to prevent cancer from spreading to the body’s other organs, because the chancesof recovery are then very low.
Further information:
Albert Moltó / Lourdes Campuzano
Communication
SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital
Tel.: +34 932532150 / +34 605695277 / +34 665 500 214