Mayo Clinic researchers cured a woman’s stubborn cancer by giving her enough measles vaccine to innoculate 100 million people. It made her violently ill for hours, but then as she recovered the cancer started shrinking.

The forehead tumor vanished over the course of several weeks, and the other tumors in her body followed suit.

“It’s a very simple concept, really,” Russell explained in a Mayo Clinic video. “Viruses naturally come into the body and they destroy tissue.”

In a paper published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Russell explained that his team re-engineered the measles virus to program it to fight cancer.

Once inside the body, the measles viruses bind to the tumors and use them to replicate their own DNA. The cancer cells eventually explode to release more copies of the virus. The procedure has the added benefit that the invading viruses trigger the patient’s immune system, which then goes to work against the remaining crippled cancer cells.

Kind of amazing, and even more so for the paths of research it opens up. The downside is that if you’ve had measles, or been vaccinated against it, it won’t work for you.

Erholtz’s case, said Russell, taught researchers two things, “No. 1, you need a really big dose and No. 2, the patient needs to not have an antibody to the virus.”

But if the theory works with other viruses, like the common cold, that’s a work around. It goes to clinical trials now. 

MIND BLOWING SCIENCE!!