i don't know if this is "new" so much as it is newly approved. There are at least two broad schools of thought in today's biotech discovery. The first is to reverse-engineer chemicals or genetic sequences that are found in the causal chain to contribute to certain diseases. Think synthetic estrogen. The second is to find naturally occurring chemicals, proteins, etc that the body already uses and re-purpose it. Think Bexion Cancer Therapeutics. This is of the second variety, and those tend to be more promising in that the body hasn't automatically rejected it outright. Coupled with the fact that the problem with cancer is the cells won't die, and that herpes basically tears the cells apart, and you've got a pretty intuitive thesis for this drug development. Will keep waiting to see if cancer adapts to this treatment, and whether the treatment spreads to infect other cells unwittingly. Always glad to see steps toward cancer cures though.
