More than 100 years ago, a few doctors noticed a strange, seemingly magical phenomenon in their cancer patients.

“There are case reports of cancer patients who got infections – influenza, chicken pox – and their cancer would shrink and go away,” said Dr. Tim Cripe, head of the Division of Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplants at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a professor in the College of Medicine at Ohio State.

This was during a time when there were no treatments for cancer. Doctors didn’t understand why viruses seemed to shrink tumors … or why they inevitably returned and killed their patients.

But now, Tim is one of the cancer researchers leading the way in a new and promising field of cancer research that unleashes the power of a virus to cure cancer: viral immunotherapy. And, with the support of a Pelotonia Idea Grant, he is conducting a clinical trial that is expanding the ways in which this treatment is being used.

But first, a little background.

As doctors began to understand viruses in the 1940s and 1950s, they started trying to use them to fight cancer. Although they had some success in shrinking some patient’s cancers, there were problems.

“Patients would also get the infections and all sorts of bad side effects,” Tim said. “And then chemotherapy came on the scene and that line of study – viruses – was dropped. But now, chemotherapy has plateaued and there has been a resurgence of interest in viral immunotherapy.”

Genetics allow researchers to “take out the genes in a virus that make people sick and retain enough of the virus parts that kill cancer,” Tim said. Viral immunotherapy also seems to kick start a patient’s immune system, helping it recognize and prevent the growth of new cancer cells.

“It’s been tested in mice and after viral immunotherapy you can implant the cancer back in the mice and it won’t grow,” Tim said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved Imlygic – the first viral therapy for cancer treatment. The new drug is a genetically modified herpes simplex virus for the treatment of melanoma.

Tim was a member of the FDA board that approved Imlygic by a 22-1 vote.

Nationwide Children’s and others are currently conducting clinical trials of cancer patients – up to the age of 30 – using a different strain of the herpes virus.

“It’s for solid tumors and the injection is directly into the tumor,” Tim said, adding the clinical trials are being funded by a three-year, $750,000 FDA grant.

However, not all tumors are localized.

“The cancer has spread to multiple areas and it’s not possible to inject directly into all of them,” Tim said.

This is where the two-year, $150,000 Pelotonia Idea Grant comes into the equation.

“We’ve created a new trial,” Tim explained, adding these trials would not be possible without the Pelotonia funds. “We deliver the virus intravenously so it will circulate and find all the tumors. We have evidence from trials with mice that it will work this way.”

The trial has just started and the goal is to enroll nine to 12 patients.

“It’s for patients where regular treatment hasn’t worked and there are no other options,” Tim said. “We’re at the beginning of a whole new field of therapy.”

Tim is a four-time Pelotonia Rider and a member of the Nationwide Children’s Peloton, which had 56 members in 2015 and raised $82,153.31.

“It’s the right thing to do and I’ve been inspired by the people I meet and see,” he said of his experience as a Rider.

“And, we’ve had enough successes in pediatric cancer, through research, that I know it’s possible to make a difference. And I also know we have to keep pushing and pushing.”

*Note: Nationwide Children’s has been the pediatric arm of the James and Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer for more than 20 years. Doctors/researchers at each hospital work together on many projects and some, such as Tim, are affiliated with both institutions.