Phil Bauman was 48 years old, with a wife and young son, when the worst headache of his life turned out to be a fast-growing, incurable brain cancer, galled glioblastoma. “It was scary stuff, you know, said Phil, “my kid was 8.” Survival for patients is measured in months. If the tumor can be removed, 14 months is considered a good prognosis.
Phil opted for surgery to remove the tumor, but, as doctors predicted, the cancer came right back. “Characteristically they come back every 6 months, mine did,” said Phil.
His wife Misty was terrified, “They multiply so fast they grow so fast they can't catch up, and that's how people die.
With nothing to lose and his family to live for, Phil enrolled in a clinical trial at M.D. Anderson, that would use the common cold virus, as a weapon. His neurosurgeon was Dr. Frederick Lang.
“We take the virus and we inject it directly into the tumor, we drill a hole in the patient's skull we pass a needle in and inject the virus.”
It sounds more like science fiction than medicine.
Within the medical community, there was no shortage of doubters. Dr. Juan Fueyo put it this way: “People thought we were crazy.” In fact, it almost didn't get off the ground, because no one wanted to fund it. Says Fueyo: “In the beginning, nobody understood the concept, everybody thought it was very dangerous.” This is a "live" virus, we're talking about, and a massive dose.
Dr. Lang said they put thirty billion viral particles into the patient, and, normally, if you injected that much virus into a patient, the person would get very sick. But this virus is genetically- engineered to attack only cancer cells, not healthy ones. they named their virus "delta 24."
Dr. Fueyo said: “it's like a German submarine!” Once it's inside the tumor, that "submarine" virus goes to work. Doctors say it gets into a couple of cells, replicates, makes a lot of copies of itself, bursts the cell, kills the tumor cell, and all of the viral particles are now released, and can go infect more tumor cells. The ability to make copies of itself, the very thing that makes a virus harmful, is what makes it the perfect cancer-killing weapon; like an army that's constantly making more soldiers. Dr. Lang said they are “exploiting nature's natural processes to overcome cancer.”
“With each round of this infection release, you kill the tumor cell,” he said, “but you get more virus, which can go on and infect more cells, and, that way, the virus can theoretically spread through a large tumor.” They chose the cold virus because it didn't need to be altered too much to make it safe for the patient, yet effective against the cancer.
For Phil and 24 other patients with terminal brain cancer, the virus was not just their best shot it was their only shot. “All these drugs we give, says Lang, “the tumor is smarter than the drug. But the virus might be smarter than the tumor, or at least it can play in the same game.”
Against all odds, Phil Baumann's tumor started to go away. Said Phil, “You're truly in disbelief that you may have a chance to beat this.”
He wasn't alone. Two other glioblastoma patients also saw their tumors vanish. People who had already planned their own funerals now had a total absence of cancer.
Dr. Lang said the chance of having a tumor completely go away in a phase 1 clinical trial “is almost zero."
That was 3 and a half years ago, and today, Phil, who had only months to live, remains cancer-free: “To be able to say you have no active tumors and I've had no active tumors now for 3 years? Unbelievable.” His Wife Misty tears up when she thinks about it: “He's a miracle! It just doesn't happen. We cried happy tears”
Cody Baumann who thought he was going to lose his dad had this perspective: “If God wanted my dad up in heaven with him, he would have already took him.”
Not everyone was so lucky. 50% of the patients had only a "partial response,” and the 2 other patients whose tumors went away, have had a recurrence. Phil Baumann isn't just A patient, he is THE patient. doctors think, in Phil's case, the virus worked with his immune system to inoculate him against the cancer. Dr. Lang said: “We are almost creating a vaccine, inside the brain, specifically against the tumor.
And that's what they hope to do with patients in the next phase. They are even using a word cancer doctors almost never use. The word “cure.”
Dr. Fueyo is optimistic: “Maybe we can generate a perfect cancer vaccine, that maybe will cure cancer.”
Not just glioblastoma, but all cancers. “Pancreatic cancer, it looks like it can kill those tumors, but we think this could be used against breast cancer, lung cancer, and many cancers that metastasize to the brain and to other organs,” said the doctors.
Phil baumann knows how fortunate he is: “With M.D. Anderson holding my one hand and the lord holding the other, I really think it's pulling me through.”
He marvels that the trial that saved his life could one day make all cancers a thing of the past. “It's blessed me what they're learning,” says Phil, “and I hope it helps other people.”
For more information about the clinical trial and the charities that support it, you can visit the “Katie McCall Fox 26 Facebook Page.”
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