Treating cancer with the common cold

University of Queensland researchers have made a breakthrough in the treatment of Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC), one of the most common forms of skin cancer.

Dr Greg Siller, adjunct associate professor at the UQ Faculty of Medicine and one of Brisbane’s leading dermatologists, said the results of the study, which involved a patient's tumour being injected with the common cold virus, showed surprisingly promising results.

“We were delighted; not only did we achieve an 84 per cent cure rate on the target tumours but to our surprise, all of the other tumours on those patients showed evidence of immune activation.

"It appears we have stimulated the patients' immune system to deal with some of these other BCCs, leading to reduction in size — and some were even cured,” Dr Siller said.

Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) accounts for 70 per cent of non-melanoma skin cancers in Australia and is caused by exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

Dr Siller's co-researcher is academic dermatologist Dr Helmut Schaider from the Translational Research Institute.