Researchers have long known that viruses are capable of killing cancer in animals.
The virus attaches itself to a cancerous tumor then uses it as a host to replicate its own genetic material. The overwhelmed cancer cells eventually buckle under the pressure and release the virus.
Doctors carry out this process either by injecting the virus directly into the tumor, thereby reducing the potential of error, or injecting the virus into the bloodstream and allowing it to find the tumor itself. The latter method was used on Erholtz, as
much of her cancerous tumors were located in her bone marrow.
“Without trying to hype it too much, it is a very significant discovery,” Dr. John C. Bell of the Centre for Innovative Cancer Research in Ottawa told the Tribune, adding that the development represents a “benchmark to strive for and improve upon.”
Dr. Russell went on to explain that a single 11-year-old boy named David Edmonston has provided the strain that has been used to safely make all of the measles vaccines in the West.
Though most people's immune systems attack the strain, patients with multiple myeloma – such as Erholtz – often have suppressed immune systems, which can allow the virus to spread and do its work.
Doctors were able to subvert Erholtz's immune system by extracting her cells, loading them with measles, and then injecting them back into her system.
“That way it doesn’t get destroyed before it reaches its target,” he said.
Ten-thousand infectious units of the measles virus are contained in a normal vaccine, yet patients in this case were given one million infectious units before the level was again increased to 100 billion infectious units.
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