FUTURE HOPE???

The common cold virus could fight cancer
Posted: Jan 11th 2007 12:35PM by Adams Briscoe
Filed under: General Health

The Guardian is reporting on a revolutionary new way to possibly fight cancer in the future using the common cold virus of all things. By injecting the infected tissue with a cold, British researchers are hoping that this method may complement other popular ways of fighting cancer like chemotherapy.

Because cancer naturally stops a person's immune system from killing it off, a cold virus would find the cellular environment of a tumor very appealing since there is no immune response. Scientists say they would only need to inject a small amount of virus cells because they would quickly replicate and burst the tumor cells. After that it's just a matter of repetition and reproduction.

This way of combating cancer would hopefully target the secondary variety called metastases which goes on to kill 75 percent of malignant cancer patients. We've still got several years of clinical trials before this could become a new weapon. Even so, any lucky break with these stealth viruses could revolutionize how doctors fight cancer.