What?! There’s A Link Between Covid-19 and Cancer Regression??
The next match up in the arena? COVID-19 vs. Cancer. The prize? A new hope for millions of cancer patients around the world.
With an impressively high mortality rate, COVID-19 has had devastating impacts on the world in countless ways over the past few years. From respiratory problems to long-lasting organ damage, the virus has earned a notorious reputation for the health risks it poses. But what if you were told that COVID-19 could also shrink tumors? That is the shocking suggestion of a new study, published on November 18th, 2024 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, which hints that the virus may play an unexpected positive role in fighting cancer.
Yes, you read that right. A virus that has devastated millions could—under the right conditions—help the body target and destroy certain types of cancer. This discovery, led by Dr. Ankit Bharat and his team at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, is offering an entirely new perspective on how the immune system can be harnessed to fight cancer. And while this research is still in its early stages, the implications could be huge for cancer treatment.
How COVID-19 Might Be the Unlikely Cancer Fighter
At first glance, it might seem hard to believe that a virus known for its destructive nature could have any beneficial effects. But that’s exactly what this study is proposing. It turns out that when the body is infected with COVID-19, the virus’s RNA triggers the creation of a special type of immune cell with anti-cancer properties. These cells, known as “killer cells,” aren’t any average immune response. They’re able to break through the defenses of blood vessels and tumor tissue—something regular immune cells struggle to do. “These killer cells swarm the tumor and start attacking the cancer cells directly,” said Dr. Bharat, the senior author of the study. And the result? Tumors shrink.
The study, which was conducted in animal models, found this immune response to be particularly effective against cancers like melanoma, lung cancer, breast cancer, and colon cancer. While the findings are still in the early stages, the implications are staggering. The researchers believe that this could one day become a powerful strategy for treating cancers that haven’t responded to traditional treatments like chemotherapy or immunotherapy.
A New Hope for Cancer Treatment
Dr. Bharat and his team suggest that this immune reaction could open up a new way for cancer treatment, particularly for patients with advanced cancers, as they stated that “It offers hope that we might be able to use this approach to benefit patients with advanced cancers who haven’t responded to other treatments.” Imagine using a virus—one that’s typically feared and misunderstood—to trigger the body’s immune system to take down cancer cells. If this can be replicated in humans, it could significantly change the way we think about cancer therapy.
And Yet, This is Just the Beginning
Of course, it’s important to remember that this discovery is still in its infancy. The effects have only been observed in mice, and there’s a long road ahead before this could be applied to human cancer patients. Dr. Marc Siegel, a clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health, was quick to caution that this is far from a cure for cancer. As Dr. Siegel stated, “This is not a cancer cure, and it has only been seen in mice so far,”.
But even with these early-stage results, the potential is undeniable. This isn’t just any coincidence. If further studies and clinical trials confirm that this approach can work safely in humans, we could be looking at a whole new way of tackling cancers that have proven stubborn and resistant to current treatments.
What makes this discovery even more fascinating is that it builds on a concept that’s been around for decades: using infection to fight cancer. While it might sound counterintuitive, there is a long history of researchers looking into how viruses and infections can stimulate immune responses that target tumors. In fact, spontaneous tumor regression following infection has been documented in several illnesses over the years.
Dr. Jacob Glanville, CEO of Centivax, a biotech company, noted that this isn’t a new idea. “There’s a known history of spontaneous regression following an infection with a high fever in multiple illnesses,” he explained. It’s the body’s immune system going into overdrive, triggered by the inflammation of the infection, that may also turn its attention to cancer cells.
Dr. Glanville also pointed out that while COVID-19 infection seems to be the most intense trigger for this immune response, vaccines could potentially offer a similar, though weaker, effect. “The immune system is more ‘riled up’ during an infection, but the vaccine may still be able to trigger a beneficial immune response,” he mentioned. However, it’s unlikely that a vaccine would cause the same level of tumor shrinkage as an actual infection.
Looking Ahead
The next step in this exciting research is to move from animal models to clinical trials with human patients. Researchers at Northwestern Medicine are already planning these trials to test whether the immune response observed in mice can be safely and effectively applied to human cancers.
As Dr. Bharat said, “We’re in the early stages, but the potential is there to transform cancer treatment”. If these trials are successful, there could be a new type of cancer therapy emerging, one that takes advantage of the body’s own immune system, activated by a virus, to fight back against tumors. A disease against a disease.
