Tricking the Immune system

In March of 2015, 60 minutes aired a segment about ongoing medical research at Duke University treating brain cancer with an injection of polio vaccine.  The virus had been weakened to avoid causing a complication to the patient and the therapy is having remarkable success.  Once injected into the cancer cells it activates an immune response within the body that kills the virus along with the cancer cells.  This 21^st century therapy has already saved lives that would not have survived if those patients had followed conventional treatments for their brain cancer.

What is old is new again

I was thoroughly impressed with the story and the way the researchers tricked the patient’s immune system into attacking the brain cancer.  I thought “now here’s a shining example of 21^st century medicine”.  That feeling was tarnished when I recently found out that CBS failed to mention that this therapy has been used before....