Cancer can be fought by a bug that normally gives children the sniffles.

Tumors can be reduced by reovirus and this is what the researchers are hopeful about. Reovirus usually causes mild colds or stomach upsets.

It can be possible that diseases like breast cancer and skin cancer are fought with by the virus, which would be given to outpatients through a drip.

Researchers stated that the way the reovirus works is by killing a cancer cell by entering it and replicating within it. As compared to conventional cancer treatments, this seems to produce fewer side effects.

There are trials on human being conducted to see the results and if they prove to be successful then in as little as three years, experts predict a cancer-zapping drug based on the virus could be in widespread use.

University of Leeds researcher Professor Alan Melcher said, “Chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery are all valuable treatments but viruses are potentially a quite different side of treatment that could sit alongside them.”

Cancerous cells are killed as reovirus homes in on them and it also gives a boost to the immune system to fight the disease.