Scientists Inject Viruses to Treat Cancer

Society | January 12, 2007, Friday // 00:00

British scientists will start clinical tests on people of a new revolutionary method for cancer treatment.

They will try to destroy cancer cells by infecting them with ordinary viruses, for example such ones that cause flu and colds. If this treatment turns out successful, it will be applied along with chemo and radiotherapy.

Leonard Seymour, gene therapy professor in Oxford University, will start the clinical tests this year.

The idea is to make injected viruses directly destroy cancer cells without damaging the other tissues. Preliminary tests on mice showed the method shows good results when applied to tumours that are resistant to standard cancer treatments.

The idea for such treatment is not new, but Seymour has developed another way to make viruses more effective. Seymour "masks" the virus so the immune system could not identify it, thus allowing it to reach, through the cardiovascular system, the cancer cells in the whole body.

Scientist believe this new treatment method will be very effective in the cases of metastases that spread all over the body.

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