Genetically modified cold kills brain tumors..

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A cold virus genetically engineered to help it sneak into cancer cells can kill inoperable brain tumors in mice, U.S. scientists reported on Tuesday.

 

The effects were so stunning that the National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are rushing to test the approach in people with brain tumors.

 

If it works, it will be the first treatment for malignant glioma, the deadliest form of brain cancer.

 

Lang and colleagues used a genetically engineered form of a common cold virus known as an adenovirus. They weakened it so it could not affect healthy cells, then gave it an added genetic "key" to open the door into cancer cells.

 

When they tested it in mice injected with human brain tumor cells of a particularly nasty nature, called glioblastoma multiforme, it apparently cured 60 percent of them.

 

"The animals lived 140 days -- we took the brains out at that point and found no tumors there," Lang said in a telephone interview. Normally, mice injected with human brain tumor cells die within 20 days.

 

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