The potential of oncolytic virotherapy, long discussed in scientific circles, has been dramatically illustrated by one of the most prominent cases of self-treatment. A scientist, facing a third cancer recurrence, achieved remission through a self-administered viral therapy. This raised profound questions about personalized medicine while also igniting both admiration and ethical debate.
Self-Experiment Success: The Unconventional Solution of Virologist and Immunologist Dr. Beata Halassy Against Her Own Breast Cancer
Background
Dr. Beata Halassy is a Croatian virologist and immunologist with a PhD in biology. She serves as a senior scientist at the Center for Research and Knowledge Transfer in Biology at the University of Zagreb. Her research interests include anti-venom development, bioassays and cell culture, biochemistry, immunology protocols, immunomodulation, and pharmacology.
Nevertheless, at the age of 49 in 2020, she discovered she had triple-negative breast cancer at the site of a previous mastectomy. This was the third recurrence. The first case was diagnosed in 2016 with several foci of invasive ductal cancer. It was treated via mastectomy and followed by adjuvant chemotherapy to kill the remaining cancer cells and keep the tumor from returning.
A small TNBC local recurrence below the suture from the previous mastectomy was surgically removed in 2018. However, despite this removal, a small sarcoma of less than 1 centimeters remained at the site of excision. This was periodically monitored. Results of an imaging in 2020 showed that the sarcoma progressed to a 2-centimeter solid tumor that appeared hard and inflamed.
She was hesitant to go another round of aggressive chemotherapy due to having undergone prior treatments. She also anticipated that the recurrent tumor would be of triple-negative phenotype and knew that there were limited treatment options. Hence, drawing upon her expertise as a virologist and immunologist, she opted for an approach called oncolytic virotherapy.
Self-Treatment
Oncolytic virotherapy is an emerging cancer treatment that uses genetically modified or naturally occurring viruses to infect and kill cancer cells while sparing healthy cells. These viruses, known as oncolytic viruses, replicate within cancer cells, causing them to burst and release viral particles to attack other cancer cells, while also activating an anti-cancer immune response.
Dr. Halassy collaborated with her laboratory colleagues to plan her cancer treatment approach. Her team prepared two specific viruses. These were the Edmonston-Zagreb strain of the measles virus or MeV and the Indiana strain of the vesicular stomatitis virus or VSV. She received multiple intratumoral injections of these viruses over a two-month period. It was well-tolerated.
Both imaging studies and clinical observations indicated a significant reduction in tumor size after two months. The shrunken tumor was no longer invading the skin or underlying muscle. It also became more defined and less invasive to allow for a straightforward surgical excision. An analysis of the excised tumor showed lymphocytic infiltration with high levels of immune cells.
Dr. Hallasy completed a one-year adjuvant therapy with the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab post-surgery. This is a standard treatment for HER-2-positive breast cancer. Her overall health remained well and there was no recurrence 45 months after the surgery. It is also worth noting that did not experience serious side effects during the course of her oncolytic virotherapy.
Her approach is not entirely a case of self-treatment. She developed and followed her experimental protocol with the help of her lab colleagues and the knowledge and cooperation of her team of physicians. Her oncologists were specifically informed of her plan and agreed to monitor her condition. The doctors were also allowed and prepared to intervene if necessary.
Precautions
Further details of the experimental protocol devised and implemented by Dr. Halassy are discussed in a case study published in the journal Vaccines in August 2024. She made previous attempts to share details of her experience in various scientific publications but her paper was rejected more than a dozen times not because of its scientific merits but due to ethical concerns.
The publication Nature reported that she is now part of the long line of scientists who have taken part in under-the-radar, stigmatized, and ethically fraught research undertakings. This statement underscores the ethical issues surrounding not only self-treatment but also other researchers and even non-scientists who experimented on their own bodies in pursuit of research.
Several bioethicists explained that publishing case studies involving self-experimentations could encourage others to risk similar pursuits while having no access to medical supervision. This issue has also become pertinent and prevalent due to the availability of open-source papers and popular science communications that inform so-called informal bio-hacking communities.
Dr. Hallasy highlighted not only the merits of her work but also the relevant issues in her paper that was co-authored with other researchers. Her paper stressed that the results were isolated and the case was an example of an unconventional work. It further concluded that self-medicating with oncolytic viruses should not be the first approach to dealing with diagnosed cancer.
FURTHER READINGS AND REFERENCES
- Corbyn, Z. 2024. “This Scientist Treated Her Own Cancer With Viruses She Grew in the Lab. In Nature. 635(8039): 529-530. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. DOI: 1038/d41586-024-03647-0
- Forčić, D., Mršić, K., Perić-Balja, M., Kurtović, T., Ramić, S., Silovski, T., Pedišić, I., Milas, I., and Halassy, B. 2024. “An Unconventional Case Study of Neoadjuvant Oncolytic Virotherapy for Recurrent Breast Cancer.” In Vaccines. 12(9): 958. MDPI AG. DOI: 3390/vaccines12090958