A modified polio vaccine is successfully treating deadly brain tumors

Brain scan.
(Image credit: iStock)

Polio may seem out of date in the U.S., but its vaccine may be leading to a new medical breakthrough.

A modified polio vaccine injected into patients' deadly brain tumors helped reverse their "dismal" diagnoses, a report in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests. The survival rate for stage IV gliomas — a common type of brain tumor — is usually less than 20 months, and there's no effective treatment. But some of these tested patients are still alive after six years.

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Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.