Common cold virus ‘can kill off skin cancer cells’

A cold virus has been found to shrink cancerous skin tumours by almost half in early research that could signal a new era in non-surgical treatment.

When prescribed alongside immunotherapy drugs, a live common cold virus was seen to infect and destroy cancer cells during a study led by New York University’s Langone Health medical centre.

A combination of pembrolizumab, a drug known as Keytruda, and an injection of the coxsackievirus shrank melanoma tumours in 47 per cent of men and women with advanced skin cancer.

As part of the Phase 1 trial, they were given the therapy every few weeks for at least two years, and the results were recorded at the university’s Perlmutter Cancer Centre.

Immunotherapy drugs are usually effective in reducing the size of tumours in just over a third of patients.

The breakthrough offers hope to those with cancer who are unable to have tumours surgically removed.

“Our goal is to determine if the virus turns the tumour microenvironment from ‘friendly’ to one that is ‘unfriendly’, making the cancer cells more vulnerable to pembrolizumab,” said Dr Janice Mehnert, a professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and associate director of clinical research at the centre.

“This oncolytic virus injection, when combined with existing immunotherapy, is not only safe but has the potential to work better against melanoma than immunotherapy alone.”

Experts have known that viruses can attack cancerous growths since the 1800s, but advances in genetic engineering have since allowed scientists to explore new methods of training viruses to go after specific molecules within malignant cells.

Researchers in the NYU study recorded minimal side effects in those taking part, such as skin rashes and fatigue. The next phase of clinical trials will involve patients with melanoma, the most serious skin cancer that has become widespread.