Viral therapy could boost limb-saving cancer treatment

Tuesday, July 22, 2014 - 15:02 in Health & Medicine

Viruses designed to target and kill cancer cells could boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy to the arms and legs and help avoid amputation, a new study reports. Researchers tested the effectiveness of a genetically engineered version of the virus used to vaccinate against smallpox. They found use of the virus alongside isolated limb perfusion chemotherapy -- given directly to blood vessels supplying the affected arm or leg as an alternative to amputation -- was more effective in rats than either treatment on its own.

Read the whole article on Science Daily

More from Science Daily

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free!

Check out our next project, Biology.Net