Breakthrough as dual-action cancer-killing virus developed by scientists

Scientists have equipped a virus that kills carcinoma cells with a protein so it can also target and kill adjacent cells that are tricked into shielding the cancer from the immune system and supplying it with growth factors and nutrients.

Researchers at the University of Oxford said it is the first time cancer-associated fibroblasts within solid tumours have been specifi- cally targeted in this way. They believe if further safety testing is successful, the dual-action virus, which they have tested in human cancer samples and in mice, could be tested in humans with carcinomas as early as next year.

Currently any therapy that kills the “tricked” fibroblast cells may also kill fibroblasts throughout the body – for example, in the bone marrow and skin – and cause toxicity.

In this study, published in the journal Cancer Research, scientists used a virus called enadenotucirev, which is already used in clinical trials for treating carcinomas.

It has been bred to infect only cancer cells, leaving healthy cells alone.

The virus targets carcinomas, which are the most common type of cancer and start in cells in the skin or in tissues that line or cover internal organs, such as the pancreas, colon, lungs, breasts, ovaries and prostate.