A team of molecular biologists at Duke University are using the polio virus, known for crippling and killing millions, as a way to treat patients who are suffering from glioblastoma, a fast-growing and lethal form of brain cancer. While 11 of the 22 participants in the bold, experimental treatment have succumbed to their disease, two patients have been declared cancer free by doctors. One of them is young Stephanie Lipscomb who was declared cancer free after one dose of the medicine three years ago. She was diagnosed with cancer when she was just 20. Polio, which famously put Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a wheelchair, could turn out to be just as crippling to The Emperor of All Maladies
60 Minutes spent 10 months shadowing the Duke biologists and some of the participants including Lipscomb. Scott Pelley will deliver the report on Sunday, March 29 at 7pm on CBS.
