Hope Shown In These Surprising (But Promising) New Possible Tumor Treatments

If you or anyone you know is suffering from tumors, you know how fear can rob you of hope. However, scientists have recently made some intriguing discoveries in new, and potentially powerful, tumor treatments. Although none of them have been approved for use quite yet, each seems to promise new horizons of treatment possibilities.

Food Preservative Shows Real Results

Food preservatives usually get a bad wrap because people consider them an artificial and potentially dangerous way to preserve food. However, scientists at the University of Michigan recently discovered that a preservative found in cheese (Nisin) actually destroyed 70-80% of the tumors present in mice in a lab situation.

The preservative (found in Brie, Camembert, and cheddar), had to be fed to the rats in what researchers called a "vast" amount. Although the exact amount was undisclosed, the possibility of converting this preservative into a treatment is exciting.

Lasers May Be The Answer For Brain Tumors

Brain tumors have always been a particularly tricky thing for oncologists to heal because they so often attached themselves to vitally important areas of the brain. As a result, surgery is rarely an option. However, a new minimally-invasive laser surgery (NeuroBlate) may hold the key to successfully eliminating these malignant growths.

Scientists at UC San Diego Health tested the effectiveness of  laser imaging and a five millimeter laser probe to directly and carefully destroy the tumor in the brain. It requires careful monitoring and specialized skills, but the initial test subjects showed promising recovery results.

Protein Shows Incredible Cancer Killing Abilities

Perhaps the most exciting of all of the recent breakthrough is the discovery of a cancer-killing protein called TRAIL. This protein was created in the Cornell University, and it attaches itself to white blood cells, travels through the bloodstream, and attacks any tumor it sees, breaking it down.

The success rate in mice was very promising, especially when it came to metastasizing tumors or ones that were hard to detect. In fact, researcher Michael King, the author of the breakthrough study, claimed that it could even be effectively utilized in late-term cancer that was impossible to treat with surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy.

These breakthroughs illustrate that the world of cancer and tumor research is making real leaps and bounds towards finding better treatments and even, potentially, a cure. So even if you are tumor-free and simply concerned about the possibility of cancer, hold on to these pieces of news as beacons of hope.