Using viruses to fight cancer

Dr Alan Parker is engineering viruses which usually cause coughs and colds to infect and kill cancer cells. He hopes to use these viruses to hone in on unique molecules found only on the surface of cancer cells to locate and kill them.

So far, Dr Parker has tested the virus on ovarian cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy. These were successfully destroyed while the healthy cells remained unharmed. He believes that this type of treatment could also have the potential to be effective against other types of cancer, such as pancreatic and breast cancer.

Dr Parker hopes that this approach will be introduced to clinical trials soon, to translate his findings into more effective treatments for people with cancer.