It sounds a fanciful idea but doctors in Liverpool are using the Herpes virus as a vaccine to treat tumours.
Traditional vaccines like the Flu or Covid jab don’t work on cancer because each patient’s tumours are so different. By injecting an altered version of the herpes virus directly into cancerous areas, doctors hope to attack the tumours and trigger the body’s immune system to specially attack the disease.
The technique is called Oncolytic virotherapy. It’s been used by doctors at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Liverpool who have benefitted from the research done to find a Covid vaccination.
The immune response could potentially be much stronger and more directed against the cancer.
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