Researchers from Yale University are looking to a virus from the same family as the rabies virus to fight a form of cancer primarily found in children and young adults.
Soft tissue sarcomas are cancers that develop in tissues which connect, support, or surround other structures and organs of the body. While relatively rare in adults, they represent approximately 15% of paediatric malignancies and result in death for approximately one-third of patients within five years of diagnosis.
Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) is a rhabdovirus, which is the same family of viruses as rabies, and causes a disease similar to foot and mouth disease in cattle. Recent research has discovered that this virus also is oncolytic, meaning it seeks out and destroys cancerous tumors.Read more at American Society for Microbiology