New Virus Features Anti-Cancer Properties
Canadian researchers claim to have made a revolutionary discovery in medicine and namely in cancer treatment. Doctors at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute have got inspiring results while testing on patients a virus that hunts down and treats cancer. An intravenous injection allowed the JX-594 virus to spread in the bloodstream and infect tumor cells in the body, leaving healthy tissue unharmed. According to Dr. John Bell, the institute’s cancer scientist, in six out of the eight patients given the highest doses, the tumors shrank or stopped growing. The 23 patients on trial had advanced cancers that no longer responded to existing treatments; after being given a one-time infusion of the virus some of them suffered flu-like symptoms, but the treatment was otherwise well tolerated. Professor Nick Lemoine rom the Cancer Research UK says, “This new study is important because it shows that a virus previously used safely to vaccinate against smallpox can now be modified to reach cancers through the bloodstream – even after cancer has spread widely through the patient’s body.â
Via:foxnews.com
