Could the FLU cure cancer? Injecting inoperable patients with the common virus destroys their tumours and could be a ‘game-changing’ new treatment

Scientists are to trial the new treatment on humans with advanced liver cancer
Initial tests have already shown the strange technique to shatter tumours in mice
Volunteers will all have a runny nose after being given the jab, doctors suspect

The common cold virus could have the power to destroy tumours in cancer patients, scientists suspect.

Doctors are to trial the revolutionary treatment by injecting certain sufferers with a laboratory-grown strain of the flu.

Initial tests have already shown the ‘game-changing’ technique to shatter tumours in mice and on a small group of humans.

But in search of effective new treatments, British researchers will test the procedure on up to 500 humans with advanced liver cancer.

Doctors are to trial the revolutionary cancer treatment by injecting certain sufferers with a laboratory-grown strain of the flu

It is believed the volunteers will all have the runny nose, cough and sore throat symptoms of the flu after being given the jab.

Advanced liver cancer spreads rapidly throughout the body, and currently few options exist to slow the growth in inoperable patients.

Currently those with less than 12 months to live are treated with daily tablets, which only slow the growth of the cancer.

‘An exciting step’

Dr Tony Dhillon, leading the study at the Royal Surrey County Hospital, said: ‘This clinical trial is an exciting step forward to help find new ways of treating cancer.

‘These novel approaches are needed to advance treatment, particularly in liver cancer, as the standard care has not changed in 11 years.

FROG SNOT TO CURE THE FLU?

The slime from a rare species of frog could be used to develop drugs that cure the flu, research claimed in April.

Scientists have long known that frog mucus holds powerful peptides that defend them against bacteria.

But a team of US scientists found mucus secreted by the hydrophylax bahuvistara frog, native to southern India, can destroy many strains of human flu and protect mice against flu infection.

The researchers said anti-flu peptides could be useful when vaccines are unavailable, in the case of a new pandemic strain, or when circulating strains become resistant to current drugs.

‘While this treatment is still in its infancy, it could be potentially game-changing for a group of patients who may have less than 12 months to live.’

Chemically-altered

Volunteers will be given a small amount of the chemically-altered virus injected into the tumour during a single appointment.

The study will see advanced tumours infected in order to attack and kill cancerous cells, while avoiding harm to healthy tissue.

A spokesman for the Guildford-based hospital said the virus worked by getting inside the tumour’s cancerous cells and replicating itself.

How it will work

They said: ‘Eventually the cells will become so full that they will burst, allowing the ‘flu-like infection to spread to adjacent cells.

‘It is also hoped that the virus will also be able to penetrate tumours that have spread throughout the body. Participants should only receive mild, flu like side-effects.’

The upcoming trial will be randomised, with half receiving the injection as well as the tablets, while the others continue on just the tablets.

It will take two to three years for the trial results to be published, with treatment potentially available to NHS patients six months after that if it works.