Italian researchers have found a way of using the Salmonella bacteria to treat melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.
The team at the European Oncology Institute in Milan is developing special Salmonella vaccines which activate the body's immune system against the cancerous cells of the melanoma.
Salmonella, known primarily as the bacteria behind a dangerous form of food poisoning, produces a powerful reaction from the immune system.
So the IEO researchers came up with the idea of injecting it into a skin tumour, or melanoma, and then administering the bacteria to the patient orally in a dose small enough not to be dangerous.
Experiments by the Italian group have already shown that in this way the immune system detects the presence of the bacteria and immediately attacks the cells infected with Salmonella.
The cells being attacked - the very ones that make up the skin tumour - are killed and the melanoma itself begins to shrink.
Maria Rescigno, who led the IEO team, said that thanks to the latest experiments it will be possible in future for patients to repeat the Salmonella treatment so as to reactivate the immune system if a tumour reappears.
Rescigno's research was published on Thursday in the prestigious medical journal Immunity.
Despite years of intensive research, the only effective cure for melanoma at present is to remove the tumour surgically before it reaches a thickness of more than 1 millimetre.
Melanoma tumours are mostly found on the skin but can also appear in the bowel and the eye. They are one of the rarer types of skin cancer but they cause the majority of skin cancer related deaths.
They are most common in caucasian populations living in sunny climates.
