This news jumped out at me.. thinking of the increase in vaccination over the decades which correlates to an increase in cancer in the same time period.
Common cold virus capable of killing off skin cancer cells, scientists say
A cold virus has been found to shrink cancerous skin tumours by almost half in early research that could signal a new era in non-surgical treatment.
When prescribed alongside existing immunotherapy drugs, a live common cold virus was seen to infect and destroy cancer cells during a phase one study led by New York University’s Langone Health medical centre.
A combination of pembrolizumab, a drug known as Keytruda, and an injection of the coxsackievirus shrank melanoma tumours in 47 per cent of men and women with advanced skin cancer.
They were given the therapy every few weeks for at least two years, and the results recorded at the university’s Perlmutter Cancer Centre.
Immunotherapy drugs are usually effective in reducing the size of tumours in just over a third of patients.
The breakthrough offers hope to those with cancer who are unable to have tumours surgically removed.
“Our goal is to determine if the virus turns the tumour microenvironment from ‘friendly’ to one that is ‘unfriendly’,making the cancer cells more vulnerable to pembrolizumab,” said Dr Janice Mehnert, a professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and associate director of clinical research at the centre.
Experts have known that viruses can reduce cancerous growths since the 1800s, when doctors reported cancer patients whose tumours shrank after a bout of measles or herpes.
Viruses can reduce cancerous growths including shrinking tumours- known since the 1800's?!
Thoughts?