A Virologist Took a Dramatic Step to Treat Her Cancer

In the history of medicine, there are countless examples of doctors using experimental treatments to address a debilitating condition. There are also numerous instances where scientists have opted to use their own bodies to test something new. The overlap between these two groups has, historically, been low — but there’s now a new addition to that list.

Beata Halassy, the scientist who used an unconventional treatment on themselves, was the subject of a paper published earlier this year in the journal Vaccines. Described as “a 50-year-old self-experimenting female virologist with locally recurrent muscle-invasive breast cancer,” Halassy used “research-grade virus preparations” on herself to treat her cancer. Nearly four years later, Halassy’s cancer has not recurred.

This isn’t to say that Halassy was entirely on her own here. The paper points out that she let her oncologists know, and that they remained up-to-date on her status throughout the process.

The paper’s authors — including Halassy herself — called the process “isolated and unconventional work.” They went on to clarify that “self-medicating with oncolytic viruses should not be the first approach to dealing with diagnosed cancer.” As Nature‘s Zoe Corbyn observed, the paper itself walks a fine line between detailing Halassy’s work and discouraging readers from going the DIY route.

A New Lung Cancer Treatment Dramatically Slowed Its Growth

The FDA approved the treatment earlier this year

Corbyn also explored the growing science of oncolytic virotherapy, which uses viruses — mild ones, in the case of Halassy — to target tumors. The desired result is for the tumor to be weakened in one of several ways, from making it easier to surgically remove to triggering a response from the patient’s immune system. As for what the Vaccines paper adds to our knowledge of this treatment, well — that will become more clear in the months and years to come.