Measles vaccine cures woman's cancer

Life


Measles vaccine cures woman's cancer

By Stylist Team

11 years ago

In an exciting medical breakthrough, a woman suffering from an aggressive form of blood cancer has been cured by a massive dose of the measles vaccine.

Stacy Erholtz, from Minnesota, had been battling the aggressive cancer myeloma for a decade when she took part in experimental treatment.

The disease has now gone into complete remission and the 50-year-old has been cancer-free for nine months.

Researchers from the leading Mayo clinic injected Erholtz with a specially engineered vaccination big enough to inoculate 10 million people from measles, local TV station KARE 11 reported.

After a short spell suffering side effects of nausea and headaches, Erholtz felt fine.

"I had plasmacytoma on my forehead, the size of a golf ball, and within 36 hours it was gone," she said of a tumour that shrank to nothing after the dose. "I knew it was working, I was really excited."

"It's the way of the future, I'm so excited for other people to experience this," she added.

Dr Stephen Russell, who co-developed the treatment, said it was the first time that viruses had been found to kill cancer in humans.

"We've known that viruses can work as a vaccine and if you inject a virus into a tumour you can provoke the immune system to destroy that cancer and other cancers," he explained.

Scientists at the Mayo Clinic urged caution over the trial results. Another woman who received the treatment saw her cancer return, while four other patients saw no effect.

The trial is set to be expanded in September to include a larger group of patients.

Stacy Erholtz explains her amazing recovery:

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