Rabbit virus analysed for cancer treatment

Southern Freemasons are spearheading research to change Southland's status as having New Zealand's highest rate of bowel cancers and plan a revolution in how the disease is treated that involves modifying a virus that decimated the rabbit population.
The treatment, being developed by the Southern District Health Board Oncology Research Unit and the University of Otago Medical School, has the backing of a $1.3 million Government grant – the highest-ever grant made by the Health Research Council of New Zealand.
SDHB consultant medical oncologist Chris Jackson told a meeting of Freemasons and the public at the Southland Masonic Centre on Tuesday night what he dubbed a "story".
"It's a story of community co-operation, collaboration and a story of a great opportunity."
And the story included rabbits.
More precisely, the virus underlying rabbit haemorrhagic disease, which is showing promise as a tool in the fight against cancer. RHD decimated New Zealand's, particularly Central Otago's, rabbit population in the 1990s.
The new treatment involves bioengineering the empty shell of the virus, known as virus-like particles (VLPs) and using them to stimulate the body's immune system against cancer.
That involved attaching tumour-associated proteins to the VLP shell like "a tail" to stimulate the cancer immune response to specifically target that cancer, Dr Jackson said.
With the green light for the colorectal cancer immunotherapy research, it was a case of refining the treatment, beginning clinical trials and collecting data for future research before a treatment could be launched in possibly three to four years, he said.
The development of the treatment is sponsored by Southland, Wickliffe and Otago Lakes Freemasons with the support of the Freemason's Charity.
One in three New Zealanders could expect to be affected by cancer and rates were increasing with life expectancy, he said.
However, the development of treatments in the past 30 years had shifted many forms of cancer from a "death sentence", he said.
The same could be said of colorectal, or bowel cancer, where the survival rate had quadrupled.
"There's room for hope and a lot of room for optimism, but there's a need for a new direction."
Colorectal cancer was still one of the leading cancers in New Zealand, Dr Jackson said. "And we still don't know anything about it ... it's a secret – a secret shame."
Dr Jackson said the Freemasons Oncology Fellowship had already funded a nurse to develop prostate cancer collaborations and trials set up with the Dana Farber Institute in Boston in the United States into localised prostate cancer and an international collaboration into advanced prostate cancer beginning this month.
Meanwhile, the Health Research Council had made its "highest-ever" grant into the colorectal cancer research, he said.
"I'm announcing this for the first time here tonight."