[Sandwich]

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/04/1816227

Awesome.

[Fineus]

Certainly! That's great news, it's about time there was some... they've been looking long enough...

[karajorma]

Interesting. I suppose it was inevitable once they found out that a virus could cause cancer that they would find one that could cure them

[TheCelestialOne]

WHOA! This is truly awesome!

[Flipside]

It's great news, problem is we will probably all be about 70 years old before this treatment stops being available only to the ridiculously paid or famous. After all, as long as their are enough of us to pay for all the bombs, what does it matter who lives or dies?

Flipside.

Edit : Sorry, long day, but I have seen a few 'miracle' cures that have gone this way.

[Razor]

Oh My Good God!
If this is effective this is absolutely a scientific and medical breakthrough.

[Flaser]

IMHO I doubt they found a virus causes cancer alone, but since viruses create a DNA mutilation or inject their own twisted DNA/RNA the effects are almost the same as normal mutation that can be caused by a wide range of things (radiation for instance).

I think it is possible though that there is virus that kills mainly the faulty cells alone.

[Nuclear1]

Sweeeeeeet.

[Knight Templar]

how Ironic that cancer should be killed by a virus. Well.. I guess not really. But that still kicks ass.

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]This is a great piece of news.

Anyone else noticed that the news has been generally quite interesting recently?
[/color]

[Setekh]

Indeed, that is very encouraging. Unfortunately, looks like no sign of effect on lung cancer...

[Black Wolf]

I've been saying for years that genetically modified viruses are the way to go to cure diseases - tis even better that they found a natural one.

[Shrike]

Originally posted by Flipside
It's great news, problem is we will probably all be about 70 years old before this treatment stops being available only to the ridiculously paid or famous. After all, as long as their are enough of us to pay for all the bombs, what does it matter who lives or dies?

Flipside.

Edit : Sorry, long day, but I have seen a few 'miracle' cures that have gone this way.

Hm, I rather doubt it.  If it's just a simple retrovirus it should be easy to culture in large quantities.  After all, that's what a vaccine is, right?  Just an innocuous form of a dangerous virus.

[IceFire]

Wow, fantastic stuff.  I've also read about documented cases going back as far as 1890's where a paitent with cancer was in a sense able to cure him/herself.  The cause of the healing?  The cold virus.  The cold virus the person got stirred up so much of the immune system that it also targeted the cancer cells killing them as well.

Fascinating stuff!

[an0n]

Originally posted by Setekh
Indeed, that is very encouraging. Unfortunately, looks like no sign of effect on lung cancer...

If they find out how it targets the cells, they'll have a metric ****-load of new cancer-poisons flooding the market sooner or later.

[Setekh]

Originally posted by IceFire
Wow, fantastic stuff.  I've also read about documented cases going back as far as 1890's where a paitent with cancer was in a sense able to cure him/herself.  The cause of the healing?  The cold virus.  The cold virus the person got stirred up so much of the immune system that it also targeted the cancer cells killing them as well.

That is pretty fascinating. Unfortunately, the more likely result is that the cold will actually kill the person - since their immune system is so compromised, there's usually nothing left to call into action. By sheer virtue of hanging around the hospital so often these past couple of years, I know people who've been hit that way, and died.

Indeed, that's my hope, an0n.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by Flaser
IMHO I doubt they found a virus causes cancer alone, but since viruses create a DNA mutilation or inject their own twisted DNA/RNA the effects are almost the same as normal mutation that can be caused by a wide range of things (radiation for instance).

Actually the human papillomavirus has been directly linked to cervical cancer (over 99% of all cases are from women who caught the virus). Although the virus doesn't directly cause the cancer it does trigger uncontrolled reproduction of cells. Under those conditions it's only a matter of time before one of the cells turns cancerous. Unlike radiation this is targetted on specific genes.

If you're interested here's a (very medical) link.
 Fortunately HPV might be on the way out anyway since they've discovered a vaccine for it recently. If they can administer this to all women at a young age we might be able basically wipe out cervical cancer (which would make it the not first one we are able to cure but even better the first one we are able to prevent occuring in the first place!)

[Gloriano]

this is wonderful:)

[J3Vr6]

Hey this is great news!!!  But, one things goes away I'm sure something else will take it's place.

[karajorma]

Cancer isn't a disease so like scurvy or heart disease if we get rid of it there won't be an evolutionary niche left empty. (Unless you're saying that something would replace HPV in which case you're probably right but at least we'd get 10-100 years of peace )