Cancer causing worm accelerates wound healing: Australian scientists

Australian scientists have found a cancer-causing parasitic worm that kills tens of thousands of people each year may in fact aid in the healing of wounds.

Scientists from James Cook University (JCU) in northern Queensland found that a growth factor excreted by the one centimetre long oriental river fluke worm drives wound healing and blood vessel growth.

The downside, however, is an increased risk of developing liver cancer.

The worm kills 26,000 people from cancer starting the bile duct each year after eating certain species of raw fish from south-east Asia.

JCU researcher Michael Smout on Wednesday said the discovery could help accelerate the healing of chronic wounds such as diabetic ulcers and also develop a vaccine against the worm-induced cancer.

"There are increasing numbers of inflammatory diseases such as diabetes and associated non-healing wounds," Smout said.

"A powerful wound healing agent designed by millennia of host-parasite co-evolution may accelerate the impaired healing processes that plague diabetic and elderly patients"

Smout said the parasite could live inside its host for decades before the cancer is developed, keeping the host healthy while chewing away at its cells.

However, a vaccine or healing agent is still a number of years away while scientists learn how the worm controls the healing process. Endit