
Many viruses are drawn to cancer like iron filings to a magnet. Why not put these viruses to use — finding, infecting and killing cancer cells?
“It’s an extremely appealing concept,” says Mayo Clinic hematologist Stephen Russell, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Russell heard the siren call of “oncolytic virotherapy” — fighting cancer with viruses — early in his medical career. He has pursued a “one-shot cancer cure” at Mayo Clinic, where he started the Department of Molecular Medicine, built an oncolytic virotherapy program and developed the manufacture of oncolytic viruses.
“I decided this is what I’m going to do. There wasn’t ever and there still isn’t any doubt,” he says. “I know it’s hard and I know there are always, always, always barriers coming at you. But that I love. Life is a problem-solving exercise. I feel extremely fortunate to have this overarching goal that drives me.”
And in this case, it drove all the way to a potential treatment for multiple types of cancer.
Read the rest of the article on the Discovery's Edge blog.
_________________________________________________
Other Mayo Clinic medical research websites:
When Joanina Gicobi began her Ph.D. degree five years ago at Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, she was interested in thinking creatively about ways ...
World AIDS Day, observed on Dec. 1, raises awareness about HIV/AIDS and pays tribute to those affected by the disease. Globally, about 39 million people are living ...
Lung cancer is the largest cancer killer of adult men and women worldwide. One of the reasons is that by the time symptoms develop, the ...