Science Media Centre

New Zealand researchers are at the forefront of the latest war on cancer: immunotherapy. NZ Herald science reporter Jamie Morton goes inside the revolution. An excerpt (read in full…) “Let’s not mince words: it’s a barn-storming, breathless revolution.” Professor Graham Le Gros doesn’t mean to come off sounding over the top. It’s just he’s palpably […]

The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has approved the use of a genetically modified virus (Pexa-Vec) for a liver cancer treatment trial. The Pexa-Vec virus is the first genetically modified organism for a human therapeutic purpose that is capable of reproducing itself, to be approved by the EPA for release under the HSNO Act. In a separate media release Environment Minister […]

A promising melanoma drug has doctors and patient groups calling for the medicine to be funded by PHARMAC in New Zealand. There has been a flurry of media coverage following a feature story about pembrolizumab on the current affairs show 3D. The drug, marketed as Keytruda, helps the patient’s immune system to fight certain types […]

A new drug that specifically targets cancer cells has shown promising results in phase three clinical trials. A genetically-modified herpes virus injected into tumours of melanoma patients stimulated an immune response to attack cancer cells, according to research published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The virus replicated inside the cancer cells and used the body’s own immune system […]