Personalized phages added to care in a small bone-infection study
A prospective study in Leuven tracked difficult musculoskeletal infections treated with personalized bacteriophages, surgery and antibiotics. 13 people received phages; nine of 11 evaluable patients reached remission lasting at least a year. Four patients without suitable phages experienced recurrence. The peer-reviewed study used small, nonrandomized groups and cannot separate the contribution of phages from the other treatments.
Science··Midday
Thirteen patients received an added treatment
At University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium, 13 people with difficult musculoskeletal infections received personalized bacteriophages alongside surgery and systemic antibiotics. These viruses infect bacteria; matching required laboratory activity against each patient’s infection-causing organisms. The prospective, peer-reviewed study appeared in Nature Communications on 5 November. Patients had exhausted standard curative options, and care proceeded within a closely monitored specialist framework.[1]
Remission lasted at least a year in nine cases
Two treated patients left follow-up for nonmedical reasons. Among the 11 evaluable patients, nine met the study’s remission criteria for at least one year; two had recurrent infections. Each of the four comparison patients experienced recurrence; their bacteria had no suitable phage match. Allocation depended on phage availability, rather than random assignment, and clinical circumstances differed between groups.[1]
Larger controlled trials are the next step
No serious adverse reactions attributed to phages were observed. The small cohort leaves rare risks uncertain. Because surgery and antibiotics accompanied phages, their separate effects cannot be isolated from these outcomes. Changes in immune neutralization and genomic monitoring showed no consistent relationship with recovery. The authors call for larger controlled trials to assess the approach further.[1]
