60 Minutes

3/29/2015

The long war on cancer has left us well short of victory. Radiation flashed on in the 19th century, chemotherapy began to drip in the 20th but, for so many, 100 years of research adds up to just a few more months of life. Well tonight, you're about see a discovery for the 21st century that may be a big leap forward --awakening the power of the body's immune system.

For 10 months, we've been inside an experimental therapy at Duke University. Some of the patients there use words that doctors don't use, like "miracle" and "cure." And that's remarkable, because these patients were handed a death sentence, a relentless brain cancer called glioblastoma. To beat it, researchers are doing something that many thought was crazy, they are infecting the tumors with polio -- the virus that has crippled and killed for centuries.

In just a moment, polio will be dripped into the brain of 58-year-old Nancy Justice. Her glioblastoma tumor was discovered in 2012. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation bought her two and a half years. But the tumor came roaring back. Now, the virus in this syringe, which mankind has fought to eradicate from the earth, is the last chance she has in the world.

Read more about the research of ALSF grantee Matthias Gromeier, whose work is featured in this report, and watch the video, below.