Common virus kills cancer, study finds

[emad]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A common virus that is harmless to people can destroy cancerous cells in the body and might be developed into a new cancer therapy, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

The virus, called adeno-associated virus type 2, or AAV-2, infects an estimated 80 percent of the population.

"Our results suggest that adeno-associated virus type 2, which infects the majority of the population but has no known ill effects, kills multiple types of cancer cells yet has no effect on healthy cells," said Craig Meyers, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Penn State College of Medicine in Pennsylvania.

"We believe that AAV-2 recognizes that the cancer cells are abnormal and destroys them. This suggests that AAV-2 has great potential to be developed as an anti-cancer agent," Meyers said in a statement.

http://reuters.myway.com/article/20050621/2005-06-21T202145Z_01_N21629972_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-HEALTH-CANCER-VIRUS-DC.html

[BrainRants]

1. Whoa! Cool!

Now the real question is whether big pharm ever allows it to see the light of day.

[acmavm]

3. Sure, if they can get exclusive use, patent it, and sell it for for huge

amounts of money.

[hecate77]

4. At $100,000 a pop for normal chemo, I doubt it.

We can't have a cure for cancer that is too cheap, you know. A friend of mine is undergoing chemo for colon cancer, and if he had to pay for the stuff himself, it would have cost him $100,000. He is one of the lucky few to have really good insurance, but even then, he was unable to get another drug his doctor recommended because the insurance company didn't think it was good for him (i.e., they didn't get a kickback from the drug company or something like that). That one would have cost him $2000 every two weeks. He had to pass on it due to that cost.

Oh, and another little thing. He has nausea, but even here in California, can he just use marijuana? Nope. But the docs have a solution. A drug that costs $1500 per dose to take care of his nausea. So, outrageously priced drug for nausea, covered. Cheap marijuana, not covered.

[NJCher]

2. amazing

Cher