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A novel approach that combines a viral infection and chemotherapy to target cancer cells can help treat women with advanced or recurrent ovarian carcinoma, has been developed by a team of researchers.

Based on cell and animal studies, researchers have established that the virus 34.5ENVE can reduce tumor growth against ovarian cancer and can be combined with a chemotherapy drug called doxorubicin to fight recurrent cancer.

"Our findings suggest that this could be a promising therapy, and we believe it should be further developed for the treatment of recurrent or refractory ovarian cancer in humans," said principal investigator Balveen Kaur of Ohio State University's Comprehensive Cancer Center, in a press release.

The virus is genetically engineered herpes simplex virus which specifically targets cells which over-express a protein called Nestin, linked with promoting blood vessel development and promotion of tumor growth. Ovarian cancer cells have nestin expression 10 to 100 times stronger than normal ovarian cells.

Ovarian cancer is often detected in advanced stages when five year survival rates reduce to around 27 percent. Additionally, women treated for ovarian cancer are faced with a 70-percent risk of reoccurrence. Reoccurrence of cancer is attributed to cancer stem-like cells which evade chemotherapy and later cause growth of tumor cells which are chemotherapy-resistant.

"This study underscores the significance of combining the oncolytic virus with doxorubicin for patients who have developed resistance to primary chemotherapy," Kaur said.

Researchers selected the drug doxorubicin as it is effective against recurrent cancer. In animal tests, researchers found that the virus-drug combination increased survival from 32.5 days to 58 days. The combination also caused systematic death of cancer cells.

The findings of the study have been published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.