MILLIONS of cancer sufferers were offered new hope yesterday after scientists discovered a way to force diseased cells out of the body by using healthy cells to gang up and fight them.

MILLIONS of cancer sufferers were offered new hope yesterday after scientists discovered a way to force diseased cells out of the body by using healthy cells to gang up and fight them.
It is hoped that the groundbreaking discovery could uncover an effective treatment for the disease that kills more than 150,000 in Britain each year.
Scientists looked at the interaction between normal cells and cancer cells.
And they discovered cancer cells change their shape and can be removed when surrounded by healthy cells.
In the past most research has focused only on cancer cells and overlooked that mutations occur in a cell which is surrounded by normal cells.
Yasuyuki Fujita, from the Medical Research Council Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology and Cell Biology Unit at University College London, said: "We have found a mechanism that forces cancer cells out of the body. "By further studying molecular mechanisms involved, we may be able to invent a novel type of cancer treatment to exclude cancer cells from the body using the help of surrounding normal cells.
"And when they are excluded in the right way the progression of cancer stops - the result we were seeking.
"It's a very exciting breakthrough in cancer research and could be a significant finding in our effort to stop cancer progression and in potentially saving millions of lives."
Henry Scowcroft, Cancer Research UK's science information manager, said: "This sort of basic science is essential in the drive to beat cancer."

2009/03/16 the Daily and Sunday Express