To honour and thank Aina Muceniece – a scientist, oncologist, immunologist and virologist, as well as Rigvir inventor and founder of cancer virotherapy for the possibility to live a full life, Harijs Zariņš – a musician and poet, has composed a song called “Shooting Star”.
ECHO-7 oncolytic virus Rigvir® in an adjuvant setting for stage I uveal melanoma; A retrospective case report
A female patient born in 1956 presented with a small choroidal melanoma in October 2007. 34 months after transpupillary thermotherapy the state of her eye worsened until tumor growth was visualized. Despite photodynamic therapy and transpupillary thermotherapy the tumor continued to grow locally. In October 2016 enucleation was performed. Since gene expression profile testing disclosed a tumor (class 2) with a high risk of metastasis formation in 5 years, the patient sought options to prevent progression of the disease. In December 2016 virotherapy with Rigvir® was started with 3 administrations for 3 consecutive days. Therapy was continued once per week until March 2017, when the administrations were changed to once per month. The patient is being monitored by an ophthalmologist. She is stable with the virotherapy ongoing and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (7 May 2018) and abdominal ultrasound (23 March 2019) imaging excludes metastasis formation. The quality of life is high.
Full ArticleA Case of Stage IV Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinoma Treated with the Oncolytic ECHO-7 Virus, Rigvir®
Renal cell carcinoma is the most commonly diagnosed primary malignant tumor of the kidney in adults, and includes the variant of chromophobe renal cell carcinoma. Despite new targeted therapies that improve progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) for early-stage renal cell carcinoma, the 5-year survival for patients with stage IV renal cell carcinoma remains below 10%, and the 50% OS is less than one year. Metastatic renal cell carcinoma can be resistant to cytotoxic chemotherapy. This report is of a case of stage IV chromophobe renal cell carcinoma that responded well to treatment with the oncolytic ECHO-7 virus, Rigvir®.
Full ArticleLong term treatment with the oncolytic ECHO 7 virus RIGVIR® of a melanoma stage IV M1c patient, a small cell lung cancer stage IIIA patient, and a histiocytic sarcoma stage IV patient‐three case reports
Oncolytic virotherapy is a recent addition to cancer treatment. Here, we describe positive treatment outcomes in three patients using Rigvir virotherapy. One of the patients is diagnosed with melanoma stage IV M1c, one with small cell lung cancer stage IIIA, and one with histiocytic sarcoma stage IV. The diagnoses of all patients are verified by histology or cytology. All patients started Rigvir treatment within a few months after being diagnosed and are currently continuing Rigvir treatment. The degree of regression of the disease has been determined by computed tomography. Safety assessment of adverse events graded according to NCI CTCAE did not show any value above grade 1 during Rigvir® treatment. Using current standard treatments, the survival of patients with the present diagnoses is low. In contrast, the patients described here were diagnosed 3.5, 7.0, and 6.6 years ago, and their condition has improved and been stabile for over 1.5, 6.5, and 4 years, respectively. These observations suggest that virotherapy using Rigvir can successfully be used in long‐term treatment of patients with melanoma stage IV M1c, small cell lung cancer stage IIIA, and histiocytic sarcoma stage IV and therefore could be included in prospective clinical studies.
Full Article