Researchers in London have made a discovery which they believe will allow them to attack cancer with new and more effective drugs.

It was already established that cancer cells have learnt to ignore messages which would tell normal cells when to die; instead they go on dividing and growing until they kill the person they are growing in.

But now the Imperial Cancer Research Fund team in London has found exactly where cancer cells block this message -- on the surface of the cell, where drugs can easily be directed.

The BBC Science correspondent says the next step is to design drugs that will remove this blockage -- a process seen as a difficult, but not impossible task.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
 

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