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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

The Food and Drug Administration is fast tracking an experimental treatment for brain cancer [thehill.com] that uses a modified form of the polio virus:

Tests at Duke University have been so successful that the FDA will make the treatment available to hundreds of patients while it's still being evaluated for final approval. The treatment uses the polio virus to attack an aggressive form of brain cancer called glioblastoma. Duke neuro-oncologist Dr. Henry Friedman told "60 Minutes" the polio treatment is "the most promising therapy I've seen in my career, period."

The polio virus seeks out and attaches to a receptor on the surface of the cells that commonly make up solid tumors. The team at Duke re-engineered the virus so that it cannot reproduce in normal cells and cause paralysis or death, as the normal polio virus does. The immune system, which typically is unable to attack cancer cells, recognizes the polio virus and can begin to attack brain tumors on its own.

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