Virus Attack on Cancer: Heat makes neglected technology work better
By Nathan Seppa
Pitting one bad actor against another, scientists are enlisting a virus to take on cancer. Tests in animals and some limited trials in patients have suggested that the technology could be effective. But before the trials progressed to their final phases, drug companies cooled to the idea and set the approach aside.
Some scientists couldn’t let go, however. They continued experimenting with viral drugs, which had worked impressively in some patients and poorly in others. One team now reports that adding a little heat to cancer cells in a lab dish enables a virus-based drug to kill cancer cells that at body temperature were unaffected by the drug.