CANCER BREAKTHROUGH: New virus cures cancer

Canadian scientists have made a breakthrough discovery and developed a virus that helps the body to cure cancer. Using genetic engineering, they claim to have developed a virus that can attack tumor cells while avoiding others. If effective, it will offer a potent new weapon against the disease.

OTTOWA, CANADA (Catholic Online) - It is a commonly cited trivia fact, that everyone has cancer cells in their bodies all the time, but the immune system rapidly and routinely kills off the mutated cells. Patients develop cancer when their immune system does not kill the mutated cells in time and they manage to multiply faster than the body can kill them. Traditional treatments include chemotherapy, which uses chemical injections to kill rapidly dividing cells, but such treatments have limited effectiveness and significant side-effects.

In an effort to develop a more effective treatment, researchers developed a virus, JX-954, that consistently attacked only the tumor cells in patients. After infecting the cells, the immune system took over and killed the cancer cells. The only reported side-effects were 24 hours of flu-like symptoms. 

Scientists are planning to test the promising treatment on mid-sage liver cancer patients. Liver cancer was chosen because the virus seemed to be most active in that organ.
 The basis of JX-954 is a virus formerly used to vaccinate children against smallpox, which is now believed to be eradicated in nature. As such, the virus is considered safe and suitable for genetic engineering. Scientists working with the virus say the genes that allow the virus to mutate have been removed, rendering it harmless. 

Plans are to inject patients with the virus intravenously to see if the virus acts to prevent the spread of cancer. Other viral therapies are being researched, but currently they require the viruses to be injected directly into the tumor and often need the support of continued chemotherapy. 

If the trials are successful, the virus could form the cornerstone of future cancer treatments and make chemotherapy, and possibly cancer, a thing of the past. 

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