Tuesday 2 October 2012

Smallpox vaccinia virus may help fight lethal breast cancer

Researchers at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, California have conducted research on mice suggesting that a form of smallpox virus may be used to infect and kill tumor cells of triple-negative breast cancer. Dr. Sepideh Gholami, lead author of this study, explains that the decision to focus this treatment on triple-negative breast cancer is due to the lack of viable long-term treatment options for patients. Triple-negative breast cancer occurs in about 10-20% of cases, and is particularly prevalent in women under 35. Dr. Gholami further notes that "smallpox vaccine has been given to millions of people to eradicate smallpox...as such, it should be safer than other agents."

To read more about this study, click here.

No comments:

Post a Comment