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Mayo Clinic Eliminates Blood Cancer Using Measles Vaccine

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K

Konka

Banned
A Minnesota patient’s blood cancer has gone into complete remission after she was administered a strong dose of the measles vaccine as part of a clinical trial that confirms a “proof of concept” that some cancers can be eliminated with intravenous drugs.

Stacy Erholtz, a 50-year-old native of Pequot Lakes, was running out of treatment options for her blood cancer last year when she participated in a clinical trial at the Mayo Clinic, a nonprofit medical research group that has been conducting tests for 150 years.

Only one of two subjects in the experiment, Erholtz was injected with a measles vaccine strong enough to inoculate 10 million people. The disease, which had spread throughout her entire body, almost immediately became “undetectable” in front of Dr. Stephen Russell, the lead researcher on the project.

“It’s a landmark. We’ve known for a long time that we can give a virus intravenously and destroy metastatic cancer in mice,” Russell told the Star Tribune. “Nobody’s shown that you can do that in people before.”

Details of the research were first published Wednesday in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Researchers have long known that viruses are capable of killing cancer in animals. The virus attaches itself to a cancerous tumor then uses it as a host to replicate its own genetic material. The overwhelmed cancer cells eventually buckle under the pressure and release the virus.

Doctors carry out this process either by injecting the virus directly into the tumor, thereby reducing the potential of error, or injecting the virus into the bloodstream and allowing it to find the tumor itself. The latter method was used on Erholtz, as much of her cancerous tumors were located in her bone marrow.

“Without trying to hype it too much, it is a very significant discovery,” Dr. John C. Bell of the Centre for Innovative Cancer Research in Ottawa told the Tribune, adding that the development represents a “benchmark to strive for and improve upon.”

Dr. Russell went on to explain that a single 11-year-old boy named David Edmonston has provided the strain that has been used to safely make all of the measles vaccines in the West. Though most people's immune systems attack the strain, patients with multiple myeloma – such as Erholtz – often have suppressed immune systems, which can allow the virus to spread and do its work.

Doctors were able to subvert Erholtz's immune system by extracting her cells, loading them with measles, and then injecting them back into her system.

“That way it doesn’t get destroyed before it reaches its target,” he said.

Ten-thousand infectious units of the measles virus are contained in a normal vaccine, yet patients in this case were given one million infectious units before the level was again increased to 100 billion infectious units.

However, the other patient tested in the study was not as lucky at Erholtz; that patient's immune system prevented doctors from administering another vaccine.

“I think that if we had been able to give a bigger dose, we might have got a better outcome in that second patient,” Russell told journalist Dan Browning.

The exciting revelation comes at a time when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to contain a growing measles outbreak in Ohio. The contagious disease has infected 68 people, adding to what was already the largest measles outbreak in 18 years in the US.

Vaccines normally prevent such situations, although several of the early cases were initially misdiagnosed, Dr. Julia Sammons wrote in an article published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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***************/usa/159012-major-measles-vaccine-curb-cancer/

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/259155541.html
 
E

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
Horseticuffs said:
Hey body is SO FUCKING NOT riddled with measles it's fucking ridiculous.
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I read the linked article, but still don't completely understand how her body was able to deal with all those measles. I understand the malignant cells were the main focus of the virus' attack, but it also says her immune system wasn't too strong to begin with, on account of the cancer and maybe also as a result of previous treatments. So she still had to fight off an amount probably equivalent to a million doses or so..

Plus, assuming the virus caused the cancer cells to die or explode, wouldn't that release even more viruses into the bloodstream?

And what is the effect on the body of those radioactive molecules added to this strain?
 
D

devilhawk

Member
Since the patient had a suppressed immune system it more accurately mirrored the murine models in research where immunosuppressed mice are used. Overcoming functional immune system is difficult.
 
E

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
Particle Physicist said:
She was given a vaccine. The measles vaccine basically uses a live 'neutered' measles virus.
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It's still multiplying like crazy inside her body (especially inside malignant cells). Isn't that in itself dangerous without a strong enough immune system to keep it in check?

devilhawk said:
Since the patient had a suppressed immune system it more accurately mirrored the murine models in research where immunosuppressed mice are used. Overcoming functional immune system is difficult.
Click to expand...

Infecting her own cells outside her body and reinserting those cells to act as a Trojan Horse seems like it could be a good tactic for treating other cases.
 
Z

zoozilla

Member
I've only read the excerpted portion in the OP, but this sounds pretty huge?

But it only works on people with compromised immune systems, is that right?

Eliminating cancer via some shots seems kind of amazing.
 
K

KingofGourds

Member
Ah, the infamous Mr.Burns method.

CWrmRxr.jpg
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D

Demon Ice

Banned
Just think, if vaccines are toxic enough to kill CANCER, there's no way they're safe for regular human use!


#JennyMcCarthyWasRightAllAlong
 
G

greatestjediever

Member
efyu_lemonardo said:
It's still multiplying like crazy inside her body (especially inside malignant cells). Isn't that in itself dangerous without a strong enough immune system to keep it in check?



Infecting her own cells outside her body and reinserting those cells to act as a Trojan Horse seems like it could be a good tactic for treating other cases.
Click to expand...

It's been a long time since I studied this sort of thing, but viruses recognize specific protein receptors on cells. It's why cross-species infection is relatively rare, because different types of organisms don't have the same protein receptors on their cells (like why you wouldn't get infected by a plant virus or the like). Cancers often expose specific proteins on their cell walls that allow them to be detected compared to other normal cells. I would guess the measles vaccine they're using has been modified to look specifically for the cancer cell proteins only.

My guess is that you hope the circulating virus will infect, multiply and kill the cancerous cells and once the cancer levels begin to drop, the virus will become ineffective without hosts to infect and die off on their own or killed off by circulating immune cells. As mentioned in the article, a strong immune system would actually be counterproductive with this route, as the vaccine would be killed off by the person's immune cells before it can do it's job. I'd actually wonder if immunosuppressants would be a viable method for someone like the second patient whose immune response killed off the vaccine.
 
G

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
efyu_lemonardo said:
So now her body is riddled with measles?
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I think it's more that there was so much measles in her system that her body did a giant reset, wiping out the cancer cells in the process.

Your body's first line of defense against a foreign pathogen is to bascially indiscriminately carpet bomb the site of infection, using brute force to overwhelm it. (This is why your throat is sore when you get sick - it's a common site of infection, and your body attacks your own throat when that occurs). (In the mean time, an antibody corresponding to the antigen is tracked down. Once the right antibody is found, the foreign body is quickly eradicated. This is why your condition when ill can worsen for days, then clear up in a fraction of the time. It's a matter of finding out the right tactical approach to the battle, essentially)

Infect the areas where cancerous cells are located, and if the infection is severe enough, the cancerous cells will be taken out as a side effect of the magnitude of the immune response. Being immuno-compromised helps because your body tactically sucks at dealing with infections and can only use brute force to eradicate the problem.

At least, that's the high-level, simplified idea, I think.
 
E

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
GaimeGuy said:
I think it's more that there was so much measles in her system that her body did a giant reset, wiping out the cancer cells in the process.

Your body's first line of defense against a foreign pathogen is to bascially indiscriminately carpet bomb the site of infection, using brute force to overwhelm it. (This is why your throat is sore when you get sick - it's a common site of infection, and your body attacks your own throat when that occurs). (In the mean time, an antibody corresponding to the antigen is tracked down. Once the right antibody is found, the foreign body is quickly eradicated. This is why your condition when ill can worsen for days, then clear up in a fraction of the time. It's a matter of finding out the right tactical approach to the battle, essentially)

Infect the areas where cancerous cells are located, and if the infection is severe enough, the cancerous cells will be taken out as a side effect of the magnitude of the immune response. Being immuno-compromised helps because your body tactically sucks at dealing with infections and can only use brute force to eradicate the problem.

At least, that's the high-level, simplified idea, I think.
Click to expand...

greatestjediever said:
It's been a long time since I studied this sort of thing, but viruses recognize specific protein receptors on cells. It's why cross-species infection is relatively rare, because different types of organisms don't have the same protein receptors on their cells (like why you wouldn't get infected by a plant virus or the like). Cancers often expose specific proteins on their cell walls that allow them to be detected compared to other normal cells. I would guess the measles vaccine they're using has been modified to look specifically for the cancer cell proteins only.

My guess is that you hope the circulating virus will infect, multiply and kill the cancerous cells and once the cancer levels begin to drop, the virus will become ineffective without hosts to infect and die off on their own or killed off by circulating immune cells. As mentioned in the article, a strong immune system would actually be counterproductive with this route, as the vaccine would be killed off by the person's immune cells before it can do it's job. I'd actually wonder if immunosuppressants would be a viable method for someone like the second patient whose immune response killed off the vaccine.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the explanations!

hucast21 said:
It's seppuku. Sudoku is a game.
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Death is no game, son.
 
G

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
terrisus said:
The Simpsons... Is there anything that it won't give us?

It's the modern-day version of Carl Banks' Scrooge McDuck comics.
Click to expand...

That's an insult to Scrooge McDuck, Carl Banks, Don Rosa, and the entirety of Disney, comics, and animation.
 
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