Cancer fighting virus shows promise in patients.

Source: Science Daily

Researchers have designed a virus called NV1020 which has the ability to replicate in cancer cells but not in normal cells. This is really a breakthrough in cancer research folks since chemotherapy has a lot of side effects.

This novel method of treatment was tested on patients suffering from colorectal cancer whose cancer has spread to the liver. This spreading of cancer is called metastasis for your info. I had already mentioned about it in my previous posts.

They injected doses of this virus into patients who failed to respond to chemotherapy and also subjected them to cycles of chemotherapy.

After six months, they found that the liver masses had completely disappeared. Not only this, the patients survived for about 12 months after the treatment.

The treatment is still in the early stages but is showing good promise for treating cancer.

Smoking at workplace increases cancer risk

Source: Huliq.com

Researchers have found out that non-smoking workers at indoor workplaces like restaurants are at a higher risk of developing cancer. Research has shown that the level of the Tobacco carcinogen NNK was found in the blood stream of non-smoking workers compared to those who worked in smoking-free environments.

They have also found out that apart from NNK, workers were exposed to atleast 50 more carcinogens leading to lung cancer, heart diseases, etc...

Hence the researchers are insisting that smoking be banned at indoor work places where the risk is very high giving respect to the non-smokers.

Bacteria may help study about cancer

Source: Huliq.com

Hello everybody, so I'm back after a month with some more interesting news. Researchers have found out a new way to unravell the mechanisms of cancer by studying about a particular bacterium Listeria monocytogenes.

Let me tell you something about this bacterium. Listeria is a gram positive bacterium and it causes a host of diseases including septicemia, mengitis, fatal food poisoning (transmitted through improperly cooked food). Basically, this bacterium enters the body by stimulating the cells which inturn "swallow" the pathogen inside. This stimulation is known to be caused due to the presence of the protein Crk II.

So where does the cancer part come? Here we go...

This bacterium has the capacity to bring about internalisation and degradation of the receptor Met known to play a role in cancer. This is done in the presence of the protein InlB which is a Listeria protein. The most important thing to be noted is that this protein is assisted by a human protein Cbl. Hence studying about Cbl could throw light on how to design drugs to control Met related cancers.