Common cold virus may kill breast cancer cells
Australian scientists believe they may be able to use a common cold-producing virus to successfully treat breast cancer patients, in a way that is much less debilitating than chemotherapy.
University of Newcastle researcher, Kathryn Skelding, funded by the National Breast Cancer Foundation and Viralytics Ltd, has been working on a new treatment which only affects cancer cells – improving on conventional chemotherapy and radiation treatment, which also impact on normal body cells.
In theory, the virus is able to selectively target and destroy many different types of cancer cells, including breast cancers, whilst leaving normal cells unaffected.
Debilitating symptoms associated with conventional treatments (such as nausea, vomiting and hair loss) could also be avoided by using the Coxsackie virus.
“If this research is successful we could have something that produces side effects as harmless as a mild, common cold-like infection yet it could successfully treat breast cancer,” Dr Skelding said.
