Smallpox virus can kill cancer cells

Smallpox virus after genetically modified has the ability to attack, kill cancer cells and shrink cancerous tumors but is still completely harmless to healthy cells. This is the conclusion of experts from the Research Institute of Capital Hospital of Canada in the scientific study published on September 2.

According to the Vietnam News Agency reporter in New York, the researchers injected doses of smallpox virus that converted the JX-594 gene in different doses into the bloodstream of more than 20 cancer patients in advanced stage. The results showed that in the highest-dose patients, the malignant tumors were stable and gradually shrunk. Through many trials, the researchers confirmed that smallpox virus was injected into the bloodstream that could poison and kill cancer cells, and especially only developed within the limits of tumors without attacking the healthy cells.

Researchers use smallpox virus because they can rapidly replicate themselves in cancer cells and alter their genes to increase their ability to fight cancer. The results of this study open up new perspectives on the use of genetically modified viruses to treat cancer in parallel with another research approach that is to develop anti-cancer vaccines. This new therapy, if successful, could effectively treat cases of tumors that have spread to many organs in cancer patients.