This doctor treated her own cancer with a surprisingly effective homemade therapy ????

Beata Halassy, a Croatian virologist, defied conventional treatments to cure her breast cancer.

In 2020, she used an experimental method called oncolytic virotherapy, which she administered to herself. After two months of treatment, the results were spectacular. However, this self-experiment carried out on her own body raises significant ethical questions.

Oncolytic virotherapy involves using viruses to attack tumor cells. Confronted with a recurrence of breast cancer after a mastectomy, Beata Halassy chose this novel approach, injecting herself with viruses cultivated in her own laboratory. The viruses she used were derived from measles and vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), whose antiviral properties have already been studied for cancer treatments.

The effects of the treatment were visible quickly. After only two months, the tumor had shrunk significantly and detached from the surrounding tissue. Analysis of the tumor revealed a strong infiltration of lymphocytes, indicating an activation of the immune system. These results astonished the medical community, even though there is still no consensus on the effectiveness of this approach for other patients.

This success, however, does not obscure the ethical risks. Some experts, such as Jacob Sherkow, are concerned that publicizing this experiment might encourage patients to stray from conventional treatments. He argues that self-experimentation in medicine must remain a strictly regulated endeavor. Nevertheless, sharing her experience has allowed Beata Halassy to advocate her perspective: that it is essential not to let such discoveries go to waste.

Researchers in virotherapy, like Stephen Russell, point out that virotherapy is already being tested in clinical trials, but never in such personal cases. For him, the novelty lies in the fact that Beata Halassy opted to treat her illness with viruses she had developed herself. This has sparked debates about the necessity of ethics in medical research and the boundary between science and personal responsibility.

She admits that this self-experimentation was not without risks, but she believes the knowledge gained must be shared. Beata Halassy did not only cure her cancer; she redefined her scientific priorities and is now seeking to extend her discoveries to other fields of virology.

This story raises questions about the role of ethics in medical research and how alternative, non-conventional treatments can sometimes provide solutions where traditional medicine falls short. Although this was a unique case, it nevertheless opens a field of reflection on the potential of virotherapy in cancer treatment.

While her self-treatment remains an isolated case, Beata Halassy's experience illustrates the ongoing quest for new solutions to often incurable diseases. However, further studies will be necessary to determine if oncolytic virotherapy can one day be validated as a method for cancer treatment.

What is oncolytic virotherapy?

Oncolytic virotherapy (OVT) is an experimental cancer treatment approach that uses viruses to attack and destroy cancer cells. These viruses are genetically modified or selected to specifically target tumor cells without affecting healthy tissue. The concept is that the virus infects the cancer cell, destroys it, and then stimulates an immune response to help eliminate other cancer cells. The viruses used in OVT, such as those of measles or vesicular stomatitis, are chosen for their ability to penetrate tumor cells and destroy them. Some of these viruses can also activate a patient's immune cells, potentially boosting long-term cancer control.

Although this approach is still largely in the research phase, clinical trials have shown that OVT could serve as an alternative or complement to traditional treatments like chemotherapy.