Common virus may improve skin cancer treatment outcomes
Source: Medical Xpress, April 2025
A new study led by the University of Oxford has revealed that a common and usually harmless virus may positively influence how skin cancer patients respond to current treatments.
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a common virus that, while typically asymptomatic, is carried for life by around 50–60% of UK adults. In healthy individuals, CMV is kept in a dormant state by the immune system. However, this process profoundly reshapes how the immune system operates. The study, published in Nature Medicine, explored how CMV affected the immune responses of 341 melanoma patients receiving immunotherapy, a form of cancer treatment that helps harness the immune system to recognize and fight cancer.
Melanoma is a cancer of the skin that can be difficult to cure if not caught early. Immunotherapies have improved the survival rates of melanoma, but not all patients benefit, and some go on to develop resistance. Occasionally, patients develop side effects from immunotherapy (especially those receiving combination treatments), which can be life-changing and, in some cases, fatal.