Cancer is a disease that kills millions every year. A disease that united people to march on streets for fundraisers and cost billions to research. This disease terrifies people, making skeptical people avoid using microwaves (which don't cause cancer) or taking X-rays in fear that radiation would give them cancer. Cancer is a true nightmare in the world of medicine.
What is cancer?:
Cancer is a disease based on the cells of the body. Cancer is the irregular replication of cells that occurs in your body. It is often caused by a mutation, and the cells grow in an uncontrolled way, resulting in excess cells and turning into tumors. These cells are deadly because they take nutrients from your regular cells, killing off your normal cells and leaving the cancer cells behind.
Why is cancer so scary?
Many people are unaware that our body have a defense system against things like cancer. Your body has neutrophils (white blood cells), dendritic cells, and macrophages, cells that, if they come across an abnormal cell, would devour and destroy it quickly. Furthermore, as cancer cells
progress in your body, your adaptive T-cells and B-cells become experts at spotting cancer cells and promptly removing them from your systems. Cancer is more common than one thinks, but most don't know it because the body eliminates it before it is noticed.
The scary part is when the cancer cells get past this point.
Since cancer cells replicate at such a rapid rate, they are more prone to mutations. Therefore, they have a higher chance to achieve a mutation and build immunity to your immune system. For example, Cancer cells sometimes gain the ability to be undetectable by your immune system. This is problematic because it allows the cancer cells to grow freely and take resources away from your body, killing you.
The problem with cancer cells is they are your cells. They are excess cells from your body that cause more harm than good. Attacking those cells from the outside is difficult without hurting your normal cells. Ever wonder why people lose their hair during chemotherapy? It's because
Chemotherapy targets fast-growing cells but cannot differentiate your cells from cancer cells, so it also attacks your hair follicles. Many current treatments can not differentiate your cancer cells from your regular cells. So, since cancer is deadly and undetectable, and attacking it from the outside can hurt you, what can we do now?
The new solution: how viruses are being used to beat cancer
Remember the widespread debate about genetic editing and its future impacts. Well, this is the newest impact of it. After decades of research, Richard Vile genetically engineered a virus to fight and beat this nightmare. He developed a precise treatment that gives humanity a better, safer fighting chance against cancer. He designed oncolytic viruses to infect, attack, and kill cancer cells while sparing normal cells. Furthermore, could you imagine that the virus has a backup move?
If the virus does not directly kill the cells, it marks them and essentially calls out to your immune system where the cancer cell is. Your body's immune system activates and properly attacks the cancer cell, ending the nightmare.
And the virus doesn't have to do it alone.
Car-T cell therapy is where the immune system is genetically modified to detect and stop cancer cells. With Vile's treatment, they have created a collaboration between Car T cell therapy and oncolytic viruses to make the destruction of cancer more specific and safe. The best way to
Beat cancer is not to wreck damage on your whole body but rather to teach your own body how to handle cancer. The new treatment is promising, working effectively against liver cancer and keeping blood cancer at bay already.
The treatment is currently in clinical trial but appears to be a promising method for fighting cancer. Hopefully, in a few years, it will be available for the public and save millions of lives. Who would have known that something that isn't alive could fight something as deadly as cancer? Well, now you know how viruses are used to beat cancer. Now, tell your friends about it and share the hope that grows in the scientific community. Cancer for years has been considered incurable. However, with hope, as Mr. Vile's research shows, with time, we will have a fighting chance. So go ahead, tell everyone!
This article was inspired by an assignment at the University of California, Merced.
We hope you enjoyed this article. This article used sources to ensure that the content provided is accurate. You can find the sources below. Please comment and share your thoughts with us! We love to hear it. Now a message from the team:
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Tontonoz, M. (2018, December 11). The Immune System Can Fight Cancer. So Why Doesn't | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Www.mskcc.org. https://www.mskcc.org/news/immune-system-can-fight-cancer-so-why-doesn-t-it
Ferrara, N. (2024, April 4). Unleashing viruses aimed at killing cancer - Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center Blog. Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center Blog. https://cancerblog.mayoclinic.org/2024/04/04/unleashing-viruses-aimed-at-killing-cancer/
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This was very informative and educational, thank you for this post!
"Bright" is one word to describe the future of medicine! ✨️✨️
Thanks for the great post! At first I couldn’t believe the title because how could a virus help fight cancer?? Fascinating and informative.