Cancer-killing treatment using a common cold virus offers hope to patients with inoperable tumors - nation.lk - The Nation Newspaper

The clinical trial utilized live coxsackievirus, one of the many viruses that can cause a common cold, in combination with pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug known as pembro or Keytruda.

The clinical trial utilized live coxsackievirus (above), one of the many viruses that can cause a common cold, in combination with pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug.

Mehnert cautioned that further testing, which is already underway, would have to prove successful before the combination treatment could become a 'standard of care,' or go-to therapy, for patients with advanced melanoma, meaning melanoma that has spread to other parts of the body.

For example, patients who responded best to the combined treatment had fewer of the chemical receptors (PDL1) on the surfaces of cancer cells that are blocked by pembrolizumab than patients who did not respond as well