Our Review Summary

This news release summarizes a study in which researchers deployed a Zika virus vaccine to target and kill human glioblastoma brain cancer stem cells, which had been transplanted into mice.

Some of the weaknesses of a Newsweek story on this research which we also reviewed can be found in the news release. Namely, it lacks a discussion of potential harms in humans; fails to include a description of the evidence along with study limitations; and doesn’t provide strong cautions that outcomes in mice are seldom replicated in human studies.

Why This Matters

Any new ideas about cancer treatment are exciting, and that is especially true for a disease like glioblastoma, the most common and malignant form of primary brain tumor.

The idea of using the “bad side” of viruses for good purposes is intriguing. What’s not so great about this release is that it’s a report of findings from a clinical trial in mice. This potential treatment hasn’t even begun testing in humans yet so there’s strong reason for caution. One systematic review of animal intervention studies found that only one-third of the most promising studies translated to successful interventions in people. And those took an average of 14 years to make it to humans.

Communications officials should set a high bar for releasing information to the general public about preliminary cancer research. Most animal studies belong within academic journals where they can inform the efforts of the scientific community toward cancer treatment — not in news releases where they may convey the inaccurate impression that we’re on the cusp of a breakthrough.