New findings indicate that a combination of salmonella and flesh-eating bacteria can be used to treat cancer tumors in the body. This could open the way to using the body's immune responses to cure the disease.

A group of researchers found that weakened Salmonella strain can be used to release a particular protein within cancerous tissues, which will then trigger the body's alarm system to fight tumors using an individual's natural defense process.

The study published in the Science Translational Medicine journal reveals that "injecting tumors with specific bacteria can help eradicate the tumors by stimulating inflammation and triggering an antitumor immune response." The researchers experiment used a weakened strain of Salmonella typhimurium to produce flagellin B protein from Vibrio vulnificus.

The immune cells attack the invaders too when they detect the trigger signal caused by the salmonella strains and protein from the Vibrio vulnificus. As the immune cells target the strains and protein, it eats away the tumor in the process as well.

The method has proven to be successful without any levels of toxicity on mouse models. The same approach may soon be used on human cancer patients. Using the body's automatic immune responses will maximize the chances of healing with lower risk.

However, Salmonella alone is a harmful bacteria which may make some people wonder why it was used to trigger the body to fight cell tumor growth. The researchers stated that the body's immune system is "far more potent" than the engineered (weakened) Salmonella strains.

According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, non-toxic bacteria did not target non-cancerous tissues in rodents - it only invaded dangerous cells in the body. With this, engineered bacteria, other than Salmonella, could be used in these types of cancer treatment approaches.