Mayo Clinic researchers are reporting that a potent dose of engineered measles vaccine has completely wiped out a woman's Minnesota woman's incurable blood cancer.
 

The researchers said the massive dose of the measles vaccine given to the woman was enough to inoculate 10 million people, USA Today reports. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-
 

The Mayo Clinic conducted the clinical trial last year using virotherapy to destroy multiple myeloma cancer calls. Researchers engineered the measles virus (MV-NIS) in a single intravenous dose, making it selectively toxic to cancer cells.
 

Stacy Erholtz, 49, of Pequot Lakes, was one of two patients in the study who received the dose last year, and after 10 years with multiple myeloma has been clear of the disease for over six months.
 

Steven Russell, a Mayo Clinic hematologist who spearheaded the study, said the concept was previously tested in mice, but never in humans.
 

"It's a huge milestone in that regard," said Russell. "We have known for some time viruses act like a vaccine. If you inject a virus into a tumor you can provoke the immune system to destroy that cancer and other cancers. This is different, it puts the virus into bloodstream, it infects and destroys the cancer, debulks it, and then the immune system can come and mop up the residue."
 

Mayo researchers are also testing the measles virus's effectiveness at fighting ovarian, brain, head, and neck cancers and mesothelioma. They are also developing other viruses that seem to have potential to kill cancer cells.
 

The Mayo is moving immediately into a phase two clinical trial involving more patients with a goal of receiving Food and Drug Administration approval within four years.