Researchers have found a way to activate Epstein-Barr viruses inside tumors as a way to identify patients whose infection can then be manipulated to destroy their tumors, according to a report in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

Researchers said the strategy could offer a novel way of treating many cancers, including at least four different types of lymphoma and nasopharyngeal and gastric cancers.

A team from Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions was able to light up viruses in tumors without adding new genes.

A variety of cancers are more likely to occur in people who have been infected with the Epstein-Barr virus, but not everyone with these cancers has such infections.

For those who do, researchers such as Hopkins oncologist and co-author Richard F. Ambinder have been working on ways to activate the reproductive, or "lytic" cycle. When enough viral particles are produced, the tumor will burst, releasing the virus. In animal experiments, it resulted in tumor death.

The method is highly sensitive, he said: As few as 5 percent of the cells within the tumor mass needed to be induced into the lytic cycle in order to be detected.

Results of this study suggest that this strategy could be applied to other viruses associated with tumors, and that other drugs may potentially be used to activate these viruses, Pomper says. "Velcade is only one of an array of new, as well as older agents, that can induce lytic infection, and a particular agent could be tailored for use in a specific patient through imaging," he said.