The virus of Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis as an antineoplastic agent in man

Case Details

Disease Location

Lymph nodes lung

Personal Characteristics

35 -year-old male hodgkin's disease diagnosis made in 1953 by biopsy of a cervical node during subsequent years, her received irradiation to various body areas, primarily for relief of pain. Nitrogen mustard was given in 1956, and chlorambucil and nitrogen mustard were given in 1957; chlorambucil administration was continuous from march 1958 to september 1960.

Clinical Characteristics

At time of readmission in september 1960, major complaints were intermittent fever, drenching night sweats, increasing fatigue, malaise, and left hip pain. There were few small nodes in the left axilla, and the tip of the spleen was palpable radiographic exam disclosed a nodular pleural thickening in the lower left lateral lung field with small effusion in oct 1960, irradiation was adminned to the left hip with resultant relief of pain between september 24 and nov 13, he was given sufficient corticosteroid therapy to provide relief from pain. During early november, irradiation was adminned to the left side of the chest re-evaluation on dec 1st revealed no essential change, he weighed 112 lb, having lost 25 lbs during the previous 3 months. Erythrocyte count had ranged between 2.5 and 3 million per mm^3 with 3% reticulocytes. Platelets were at a level of 160k/mm^3. He was given a tissue culture (tc-80) virus on dec 2, 1960. On december 5, there was an abrupatient onset of fever that reached 104.6f on dec 6 and returned by lysis to normal levels on dec 9th. This was followed by 3 days of subnormal readings during this entire period, prinicple complaints were weakness, lethargy, muscular aches, and headache. The lowest leukocyte count was obtained on dec 9 and the count returned to preinoculation levels by dec 16. On dec 10, the platelet level was 5.4k/mm^3, and because of bleeding, several tranfusions of fresh blood were given an infiltrate in the right upper lung field was noted by roentoenographic exam although the left pleura lesion diminished in size, he still complained of pain in that area he denied fever or night sweats until late february and considered himself in good condition until march 30, 1961 when he returned because of fever and weakness. The left pleural lesion was similar in appearance to that seen on the preinoculation roentgenograms. There was evidence of a recurrence of a hemolytic process. The spleen was removed in april 1961 and further chemo was given. The patient died on june 18, 1961

Remission Characteristics

Coincident with the onset of fever, leukocyte and platelet levels began to decline. Subsequent to the transfusions, the bleeding ceased and his general condition improved by dec 21, the right upper lobe infiltrate had disappeared, and at that time it was observed that the nodular lesion in the left pleura was considerably diminished in size. During the latter part of december, he was active and gained weight rapidly, eventually attaining a weight of 121 lbs by mid-january 1961. He was afebrile, and night sweats were no longer noted. Platelet count was 88.5k/mm^3, the erythrocyte level was 8850k/mm^3 with a reticulocyte level of 1.2%. He was placed on convalescent leave

Treatment & Mechanisms

Proposed Remission Mechanisms

Inoculation with tc-80 virus resulted in objective evidence of tumor regression

Clinical Treatment

Irradiation nitrogen mustard, chlorambucil tc-80 virus (attenuated strain of venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis virus [vee]) blood transfusions excision of spleen chemo

Non-Clinical Treatment

None reported