US doctors claim to have wiped out a woman’s advanced blood cancer with a massive dose of the measles vaccine, enough in fact, to inoculate 10 million people.
The woman was part of a clinical trial at the Mayo Clinic demonstrating that cancer cells can be killed with injections of a genetically-engineered virus through a process known as virotherapy.
Two patients in the study received a single intravenous dose of an engineered measles virus (MV-NIS ) that is selectively toxic to myeloma plasma cells. Stacy Erholtz, 49, from Minnesota, was one of the two patients in the study who received the dose last year, and after ten years with multiple myeloma, she has been clear of the disease for over six months now.
“It was the easiest treatment by far with very few side effects. I hope it’s the future of treating cancer infusion,” said Erholtz. Multiple myeloma is a cancer of plasma cells in the bone marrow, which also causes skeletal or soft tissue tumours. This cancer usually responds to immune system stimulating drugs, but eventually overcomes them and is rarely cured.
“We have known for some time viruses act like a vaccine. If you inject a virus into a tumour you can provoke the immune system to destroy that cancer and other cancers,” said Steven Russell, a Mayo Clinic hematologist, who spearheaded the study. “
