Cough virus helps combat liver cancer in adulthood

canceloutcancersymbol

A virus that cause respiratory illnesses and stomach upsets in children could help in the fight against primary liver cancer, according to a study. Reovirus stimulates the body’s own immune system to kill off the cancerous cells and is also able to kill off the hepatitis C virus – a common cause of primary liver cancer – at the same time, the researchers at the University of Leeds discovered.

These early stage findings are important because primary liver cancer is the third highest cause of cancer deaths worldwide and, if surgery is not an option, the prognosis is poor. Study co-leader Dr Stephen Griffin, Associate Professor of Viral Oncology at the University of Leeds, said: “Ultimately we hope that by simultaneously treating the tumor, and the hepatitis virus that is driving the growth of the tumor, we may provide a more effective therapy and improve the outcomes for patients.

“Current treatments for liver cancer that can’t be removed by surgery are mainly palliative with chemotherapy only tending to prolong life, rather than cure and it can have significant side effects.” The University of Leeds team found that Reovirus was successful in treating both liver cancer cells grown in the laboratory and those taken directly from patients undergoing surgery.

When introduced into the body, Reovirus stimulates an immune system factor known as interferon, which in turn causes the activation of a specific white blood cell called a Natural Killer cell. These Natural Killer cells then kill both the tumor, and cells infected with the hepatitis C virus.

Stimulating the immune system to kill cancer cells is known as immunotherapy. It differs from chemotherapy, in which the actual drugs kill the cancer cells. The researchers are now hoping to start the first in-human clinical trials. Study co-leader Professor Alan Melcher, now Professor of Translational Immunotherapy at the Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: “Our study establishes a completely new type of viral immunotherapy for the most common primary liver cancer type, hepatocellular carcinoma, which has a very poor prognosis in its advanced form.

32 Comments

  1. Attractive section of content. I just stumbled upon your site and in accession capital to assert that I get actually enjoyed account your blog posts. Anyway I will be subscribing to your feeds and even I achievement you access consistently quickly.

  2. Great post. I was checking constantly this weblog and I’m inspired! Very useful information particularly the ultimate section :) I take care of such information much. I was looking for this particular information for a long time. Thank you and good luck.

  3. Hi there would you mind letting me know which web host you’re using? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot quicker then most. Can you suggest a good hosting provider at a honest price? Kudos, I appreciate it!

  4. I loved as much as you will receive carried out right here. The sketch is tasteful, your authored material stylish. nonetheless, you command get bought an shakiness over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come more formerly again as exactly the same nearly a lot often inside case you shield this increase.

  5. My programmer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP. I have always disliked the idea because of the costs. But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on numerous websites for about a year and am nervous about switching to another platform. I have heard excellent things about blogengine.net. Is there a way I can import all my wordpress posts into it? Any kind of help would be really appreciated!

  6. hey there and thanks on your info – I’ve definitely picked up anything new from right here. I did alternatively experience several technical points using this website, since I skilled to reload the web site lots of occasions prior to I could get it to load properly. I have been wondering in case your hosting is OK? Not that I’m complaining, but slow loading circumstances instances will sometimes impact your placement in google and could harm your high-quality rating if ads and ***********|advertising|advertising|advertising and *********** with Adwords. Well I’m adding this RSS to my e-mail and can glance out for much more of your respective fascinating content. Make sure you replace this again soon..

  7. With everything which appears to be building within this particular subject material, all your viewpoints are relatively refreshing. On the other hand, I appologize, because I can not give credence to your whole suggestion, all be it exhilarating none the less. It would seem to everybody that your remarks are generally not completely justified and in actuality you are yourself not really completely certain of the argument. In any event I did take pleasure in reading through it.

  8. You actually make it appear so easy along with your presentation however I find this matter to be actually one thing that I feel I would never understand. It sort of feels too complicated and very broad for me. I’m looking ahead on your subsequent post, I will try to get the dangle of it!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.