Tobacco is well-known as a leading cause of cancer, but according to a study by Stanford researchers, it may one day become widely used to cure it.
The study, published Monday in a National Academy of Science journal, concludes that tobacco plants may be engineered cheaply and quickly to grow safe antibodies, which can potentially be used to battle cancer.
Approximately 18,000 Americans are diagnosed annually with B-cell lymphoma, which is a slow-growing, incurable type of cancer that is usually left untreated in its early stages. These plant-grown vaccines could provide a more aggressive treatment for this cancer.
Cancer patients are not the only ones that stand to benefit from the study.
“There are lots of diseases for which proteins are needed,” Levy said. “This vaccine production technology, if proven effective, can also be used for hormone injections, enzyme replacement and to produce monoclonal antibodies.”
“I find it ironic that tobacco is now part of an instrument that could potentially make treatments for cancer,” Levy said, “because people usually think of tobacco as a cause of cancer.”
Just don’t expect a tobacco-aided cancer cure to come in smoke-able form.