Source: www.theage.com.au Author: Rachel Browne Can the common cold cure cancer? It's a tempting idea and one on the cutting edge of a new medical research field called oncolytic virotherapy.  Common viruses have become the latest weapon against cancer with a small Australian biotechnology group one of the leaders in the field. The idea has been around for some time. The classical Greek physician Hippocrates is often credited with the saying, "Give me the power to create a fever, and I shall cure any disease." More than 2500 years later,  scientists, including a team from the University of Newcastle, are proving that the theory has merit. Not only did the classical Greeks make the observation, but there have been some instances of cancer patients entering spontaneous remission after exposure to certain viruses in the past century. There is the case of the eight-year-old African boy diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma at a Ugandan health clinic. He was exposed to the measles virus and over the next few weeks his tumour regressed completely and he entered remission. An incident documented by the British medical journal <em>The Lancet</em> in 1971 described the example of a Hungarian chicken farmer who  had  advanced colorectal cancer. An outbreak of the avian virus Newcastle disease hit the farm, the man became infected and went into remission. But only relatively recently have scientists clinically examined the interaction between viruses and cancers in the growing area of oncolytic virotherapy. Associate Professor Darren Shafren   of the University of Newcastle  has [...]