Cure Cancer Using Trojan Horse Virus

A round-up of the health news headlines on Friday 21 December

The cash will be distributed over 10 years to 325 thalidomide victims. Norman Lamb, Care Services minister, said his focus was on offering ‘practical help’. Other companies that are paying compensation to living thalidomide victims are Diageo, the successor to Distillers which distributed the drug across Europe and Grünenthal the German manufacturers.

Diageo has paid £160m over the last six years to fund the growing needs of victims, while Grünenthal has set up a €50m (£41m) fund for the 3,000 victims on the Continent.

The Independent also says that thalidomide victims are still coming forward 50 years after the scandal.

There are presently around 470 living thalidomide victims in the UK.

And the BBC reports how a ‘Trojan–horse’ virus has been an effective cure to prostate cancer in mice.

Cancer fighting virus cells were put into the rats’ macrophages. Once the macrophages entered the cancer cells the viruses multiplied before bursting from white blood cell to attack and kill the cancer.

However the treatment still needs to be done on humans as many past ground breaking studies that have worked on mice have not been as effective on human test subjects.

Dr Kate Holmes, head of research at Prostate Cancer UK, was optimistic about the implications of the study.

By Matthew Isard