The common cold virus could cure cancer, scientists say, as a “revolutionary” treatment was found to eradicate the disease in a week.

In the pioneering British trial, 15 patients were given an infusion of the bug, before undergoing surgery to remove and examine tumours.

In every case, cancer cells had been destroyed - and in one case, all traces of the disease had gone, the study found.

Scientists said they were “very excited” about the findings, for patients with bladder cancer, which could also bring hope to those suffering from other major forms of the disease.

They said the virus could become a “universal agent” to fight cancer, replacing conventional treatments like chemotherapy.

As well as reducing the size of all the tumours, the treatment, via a catheter to the bladder, had no significant side-effects in any of the patients, researchers said.

Bladder cancer is the tenth most common type of cancer in the UK, with 10,000 diagnoses annually.

Scientists said they hoped the treatment could be available in as little as three years, bringing hope to thousands of patients with diseases that are currently hard-to-treat.

Most tumours in the bladder do not have immune cells, making the disease particularly hard to treat.