Catching a cold may cure skin cancer

Main Category: Melanoma / Skin Cancer
Article Date: 07 Jan 2004 - 0:00 PDT

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Sydney (Australia) - The common cold virus most people try their hardest to avoid is very likely to be the cure for malignant melanoma, Australian scientists have discovered in a major breakthrough announced here on Wednesday.

Researchers at the University of Newcastle believe they have made an exciting discovery in the treatment of the usually deadly skin cancer of which Australia with its fair-skinned people and hot sun has the highest rate in the world.

'We have established that melanoma cells can be destroyed by infecting them with a common cold virus,' the lead researcher, associate professor Darren Shafren said.

'We believe this is a significant breakthrough in the development of the treatment of melanoma. We are very excited about it.'

'The results we have had using human cells and also in animal studies have been very exciting. If we can replicate this success in human trials then it could be available within a year or two.'

The research has just been published as the cover story in the January 2004 edition of Clinical Cancer Research, the journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

Shafron believes a treatment of the disease will be tested first on a few terminal patients and could be available even for advanced cases almost immediately. But it would be subject to regulatory hurdles, which could take longer.

'I would say it should be available within one to two years, but it could be a lot earlier than that if we get lucky,' Shafron told reporters.

'We are pretty optimistic about it as long as we can get through the red tape. I can't really say too much about it, but we have stuff ready to go and we just have to do the best we can to get through the regulatory authorities.'

Skin cancer is so common here that it would be of huge benefit in a country in which one in every two people will develop some form of the disease at some stage. About 300 000 Australians will visit a doctor this year to have a skin cancer removed.

Almost 9 000 new cases of melanoma are diagnosed each year, about 1 000 Australians die of melanoma, which is the fifth most common form of cancer.

The projected process involves injecting the common cold virus, the coxsackievirus, into the melanoma site, the virus replicates itself and is expected then to start to kill off the melanoma.

Shafron says that within weeks, there is a reduction in the size of the melanoma and it eventually disappears.

'When the secondary action begins, we expect the virus to circulate the body finding and killing off melanomas in the same manner with the effect that it will seek out and kill melanomas that may be undetectable,' he added.

'This is a community occurring virus, not a manufactured drug or a genetically altered virus. We believe it could even be effective for people with advanced melanoma.'

The work, based on technology developed by the picornavirus department at the university over the past four years, is being conducted at the local biotechnology company ViroTarg's laboratory in the Royal Newcastle Hospital 150km north of Sydney.

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