Cancer research is interesting to me because it seems like there are so many methods which can come into play which you probably wouldn't have thought about. This was the case for me as a recent story came to my attention. Did you know that there's the possibility for the polio virus to actually shrink tumors in the brain? This was the case for Stephanie Lipscomb and, to say the least, the findings at the end of this particular experiment left me surprised at what may help.
ABC News wrote an article about Lipscomb, who began to feel discomfort when she was in college. When her freshman year was wrapping up, she went to check out what the pain was about and she learned that she had glioblastoma, the most common type of tumor seen within the brain. The growth, which was located behind her eye, was removed but it soon resurfaced two years later. It wasn't until much later that a new method was suggested and it would prove to be unique, to say the least.
The article in question said that Dr. Annick Desjardins, Lipscomb's neurologist, suggesting enrolling in a clinical trial that would involve the polio virus. Basically, the polio would go into the cancer cells before destroying them from within. Lipscomb was able to benefit from it because her tumor was located on the right frontal lobe, which adheres to social skills. It wouldn't be usable if the tumor in question was located anywhere else because it could have caused damage to language and vision, to name two examples.
Despite the initial risk which seemed to be visible with this particular method, the results have been tremendous. The article said that Lipscomb's tumor decreased from the size of a tennis ball to that of a pea, which is a great improvement in the field of cancer research. Lipscomb was the first patient who made use of this and it seems like the survival rate has been made much better as a result, seeing as how she was initially going to have five more years. The increased rate deserves to be noted by organizations like Voices against Brain Cancer.
As you can tell, there is much to learn about cancer research and we are uncovering more information on the matter day after day. It's clear that this is one of the more interesting stories because it has been able to take a virus not many would have considered and incorporate it for the sake of helping a patient. Of course there were concerns on the matter. However, they soon faded away once it was made clear just how well the virus in question was able to help Lipscomb.
