Human cytomegalovirus infection levels in glioblastoma multiforme are of prognostic value for survival. This is fascinating. There was a lot of talk at the recent Society of Neuro-oncology conference about cytomegalovirus and Glioblastomas. Various groups reported all or almost all gbm samples tested had this virus. Now for the first time, this article shows that there is a very strong correlation between survival and how much virus is in the tumor. Low levels of the virus were associated with a higher survival. The group with the lowest infection level had 2 year survival rate of 63% compared to 17% in the high infection group, and the overall survivals was 20 months longer in the low infection group compared to the high infection group.
This may mean that CMV causes or at least helps make a gbm more resistent to treatment and more deadly.
The good news is that there are relatively simple treatment available for CMV infections - such as Valcyte. There is a trial going on now to see if Valcyte can help treat GBMs. There is also a vaccine trial going on that targets CMV.
