EXPERIMENTAL THERAPY FOR BRAIN CANCER OK'D

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 2, 1993                   TAG: 9303020176
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
EXPERIMENTAL THERAPY FOR BRAIN CANCER OK'D
Under an experimental therapy approved by a federal committee Monday, scientists will attack brain cancers by infecting tumor cells with a herpes gene and then killing the cancer with a herpes drug.
The therapy, proposed by medical scientists at the University of Iowa, was approved unanimously Monday by a National Institutes of Health committee. It will be reviewed by the NIH director and by the Food and Drug Administration.
Dr. Kenneth W. Culver, an NIH researcher who is moving to Iowa to undertake the experimental trial, said the technique already has been tried on five patients at the NIH. He said the patients have developed no toxic reactions to the therapy, but it is too early to determine if there has been improvement in the cancers.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB