A strain of the common cold virus, the coxsackie virus (CVA21), can halt the early stages of bladder cancer, according to researchers from Surrey University in the UK.
In the study(1), involving 15 people with early stages of bladder cancer, the researchers led by Professor Hardiff Panda, used a concentrated solution of the virus to envelope the bladder after an hour. Within a couple of weeks all the bladder cancer cells were dead. All patients saw the cancer greatly reduced; one had no recurrence.
The cocksackie virus was first identified in children in the Town of the same name near New York. It causes colds by infecting the intestines.
Chris Woollams, former Oxford University Biochemist and a founder of CANCERactive said, “Bladder cancer is an ever-greater threat with few notable treatments. We know it can be linked to environmental toxins and pathogens such as E. coli and their toxins, but there is no work in those areas for treatment. More toxins from drugs may well not be an answer so this lateral thinking with the use of an oncolytic virus is good news. One wonders how many other tumours might respond.”
Go to: Virotherapy review
Reference
- http://clincancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/early/2019/06/29/1078-0432.CCR-18-4022
CANCERactive – the appliance of Science