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Researchers have launched a clinical trial that seeks to use the combined power of two viruses to trigger a sustained assault on the cancer cells of patients with advanced tumours.

The clinical trial, which will be led by The Ottawa Hospital, is the first in the world to deploy two viruses at the same time in a biological siege of cancer cells.

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It will use modified versions of the Maraba virus — first isolated from Brazilian sandflies — in combination with the Adenovirus, derived from the common cold virus.

“By using two types of viruses, or multiple types of biological agents, you’re really attacking the cancer in multiple ways at the same time,” explained Dr. John Bell, a senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital, and one of the researchers who developed the novel therapy.

“It doesn’t give cancer cells a chance to escape. And so the chances of success are much higher.”

Viruses are ancient, highly-evolved infectious agents that can take over and destroy cells. For more than a century, scientists have sought to harness that power in the fight against cancer cells, which can replicate wildly, but are strangely vulnerable to infection.