Viruses could be used as cancer cure

LONDON, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Viruses, including the common cold, are being tested as a new way to fight cancer that could be used with chemotherapy and radiation, Cancer Research UK said.

Patients with malignant tumors usually receive radiation treatment and chemotherapy but if the cancer spreads, it can become difficult to treat -- which is where "virotherapy" comes in, The Telegraph said.

Leonard Seymour, a professor of gene therapy at Oxford University, has worked on the virus therapy with colleagues in London and the United States and will lead the trials later this year.

Using viruses to kill cancer cells directly isn't a new idea, Seymour said. The problem has been finding a way of targeting cancer cells once they split from the tumor.

Seymour's team used chemically modified viruses that can circulate through the bloodstream to the cancer cells without being attacked by the body's immune system.

Even though research is in the early stages, "it has exciting potential, particularly for the treatment of cancer which has spread, a notoriously difficult stage of the disease to treat," said Richard Sullivan, Cancer Research UK's director of clinical programs.