Scientific research is now beginning to uncover the manner in which infectious disease plays a role not only in prevention of chronic disease, but in curing it as well.
In May of 2014, the Mayo Clinic published a very compelling report that detailed the complete remission of incurable cancer, multiple myeloma, in a female patient.
The treatment? The measles virus!
In a proof of concept clinical trial, Mayo Clinic researchers demonstrated that virotherapy works by destroying the deadly cancer multiple myeloma with a virus that infects and kills cancer cells but spares normal tissues. (Ed. Note: The virus is believed to stimulate the body’s natural immune defenses, such as fever, to remove harmful foreign material.)
Multiple myeloma is a cancer of plasma cells in the bone marrow, also causing skeletal or soft tissue tumors. This deadly cancer usually responds to immune system-stimulating drugs, but is rarely cured, eventually killing almost all patients.
The two female patients in the Mayo Clinic clinical trial received a single intravenous dose of measles virus (this was not a measles vaccine) that was selectively toxic to myeloma plasma cells. Both patients showed a reduction of both bone marrow cancer and myeloma protein. One patient, a 49-year-old woman, experienced complete remission of myeloma and is still clear of the disease many months later.
It is important to note that both women had limited previous exposure to measles (meaning few measles antibodies) and essentially no remaining treatment options.
The second female patient in the study whose multiple myeloma did not respond as well to treatment with the measles virus still provided important feedback for the researchers. Imaging of the woman’s tumor sites provided clear proof that the measles virus did indeed specifically target tumor sites while leaving healthy tissue alone.
Oncolytic virotherapy, using viruses like measles to fight cancer, is not new. It’s been around since the 1950’s. Since that time, thousands of cancer patients have been treated with many different viruses including herpes, chicken pox, and even the common cold. The breakthrough with this study, however, is that it provides the first clearly documented case of a cancer patient who experienced complete remission at all disease sites after administration of the measles virus.
A larger phase two of this exciting clinical trial is currently being planned. In the meantime? Don’t be so freaked out by measles! It may yet be proven that these childhood infectious diseases so aggressively avoided by so many are actually beneficial to long term health by natural inoculation, if you will, against degenerative diseases like cancer.
Take a look at this clip of TV shows from the 50’s and 60’s (The Donna Reed Show, 1950, The Flintstones 1961, and The Brady Bunch 1969) which demonstrates the public sentiment about measles at that time.
Before the Big Pharma Marketing Machine for the measles vaccine took over, measles was really no big deal. How quickly we forget!
Source: The Healthy Home Economist
Sources and More Information
Mayo Clinic First to Show Virotherapy is Promising Against Multiple Myeloma
Fevers are Fabulous: How to Treat Them Without Meds
Traditional Remedies for Childhood Illness
For Clued-In Moms, Fever is a Friend
