A simple cold virus could help treat one of the most fatal forms of cancer, Fox News reports.

That’s exactly what researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center are trying to find out through a clinical trial testing viral therapy on pancreatic cancer. The disease affects about 44,000 people every year. 

“It’s the most devastating cancer of all the cancers,” said researcher Dr. Tanios Bekaii-Saab. “It's the only cancer that has a less than 45 percent likelihood of survival at five years."

The randomized Phase 2 trial is focused on a virus called reolylsin, which is in the same family as the common cold virus. Patients participating in the trial are treated with chemotherapy – and also receive injections of the virus into their blood.

Once in the blood stream, the virus multiplies and kills cancer cells without harming the patient – aside from causing a few sniffles.

Several patients in the trial have had their tumors shrink significantly, which is mostly unheard of in pancreatic cancer cases.

Jan Urbanick, a 67-year-old with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, has participated in the trial for nearly two years, traveling more than two hours from Cleveland to Columbus, Ohio every three weeks for treatment.

Phase 3 of the trial will begin soon and doctors hope FDA approval will come within a few years.