Scientists are successfully fighting cancer by infecting tumors with fecal bacteria.

Injecting fecal bacteria into the oxygen-free region at the center of the cancerous tumors has made these tumors shrink radically.

The fecal bacteria called "Clostridium noyvi" is a common bacteria found in soil and fecal matter. If it comes into contact with people, it has the potential to cause a range of mild illnesses when it finds an oxygen-free area to grow and multiply.

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Researchers from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland have discovered the perfect environment for the bacteria to grow is the center of a cancerous tumor.

They worked on the bacteria, manipulating it to make it less toxic. They then injected it directly into the center of tumors growing inside live patients who were treated at Houston's MD Anderson Cancer Center. The patients included 16 canines and one human.

The researchers reported promising results in a recently published paper in Science International Medicine.

The tumor in the human patient began to shrink, while other tumors continued to grow.

Three of the dogs were cured of their cancer completely. Three others saw their tumors shrink by as much as 30 percent.

In the other cases though, the bacteria wasn't able to infect the tumor, lacking the needed "oxygen-free regions."

Anaerobic cells, or cells that don't require any oxygen, were the primary targets for the bacteria. Once injected inside a tumor, the bacteria damage the tumor's cell walls and proteins by creating enzymes.

The fact that the body recognized the bacteria as an intruder triggered their body's own cancer-fighting immune response.

Study author Dr. Shibi Zhou and several of his colleagues began exploring the C. noyvi bacteria when they heard of the accounts of William Coley, a New York doctor who was in practice a century ago.

Dr. Coley noticed that cancer patients would sometimes go into remission after contracting a serious bacterial infection.

The advent of radiation and chemotherapy, however, led to doctors forgetting the bacterial treatment.

Dr. Zhou said this new bacteria can complement modern methods of treatment because some drugs work by cutting off the blood supply, and in turn the oxygen of the tumors.

TagsCancer, Tumor, fecal bacteria