Cancer-fighting Virus Found to Kill Cancerous Tumors

Cancer-fighting Virus Found to Kill Cancerous Tumors

Cancer-fighting Virus Found to Kill Cancerous Tumors. Los Angeles — Researchers have discovered a medical breakthrough in a recent study about the deadly disease feared by many, cancer. Researchers for the first time have seen that an intravenous infusion of a virus that was genetically engineered in the laboratory can successfully infiltrate cancer cells and thereby killing harmful tumor cells without harming and affecting other healthy tissues in the body.

For many years, scientists have thought of developing a virus that would alert our immune system once cancer cells start to develop and then killing each of them. Due to the modern and technological advancement in medicine in the recent years, scientists were able to maximize genetic engineering to customize viruses that would target cancerous tumors.

The team of researchers was grateful for the support and backing of Amgen Inc, biotech giant. The financial support received by the researchers last January was a whopping $1 billion. The team, developer of the cancer fighting virus OncoVex, hopes that their recent discovery will be also approved. Currently, only one oncolytic virus has been approved by medical and regulatory agencies, the treatment for neck and head cancers in China.

The next target of the team will be to test experimental virus to patients with liver cancer at the mid-stage already. Compared to chemotherapy where patients undergo drastic bodily side effects, patients will only experience a 24 hour flu-like symptoms.

Posted by James Fried on Friday September 02 2011, 2:28 AM EST. Ref: Yahoo. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0