Israeli scientists have announced ground-breaking new cancer research where they were able to destroy cancerous cells in mice using Nobel Prize-winning technology.
The researchers from Tel Aviv University revealed the potential new cancer treatment in the Science Advances journal on Wednesday, which is hoped will eventually replace chemotherapy.
In the study, they used the CRISPR Cas-9 gene-editing system which won its creators the 2020 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
The system allowed the scientists to make precise alterations to DNA in mice to edit - or "delete" - cancer cells.
The method is so specific it's as if "tiny scissors" are used to destroy the cancerous cells, leaving everything around them intact.
Cancer expert Professor Dan Peer told The Times of Israel it is the first study in the world to prove the gene-editing system can be used effectively to treat cancer in an animal.
"There are no side effects, and we believe that a cancer cell treated in this way will never become active again," he said.
"This technology can extend the life expectancy of cancer patients and we hope, one day, cure the disease."
The scientists used the deadly cancers glioblastoma (an aggressive type of brain cancer) and metastatic ovarian cancer in the study, which was carried out on hundreds of mice.
They found that the animals with cancer which received the treatment had double the life expectancy as those who didn't, and their survival rate was 30 percent higher.
Peer called the gene-editing treatment "a more elegant chemotherapy" which he hopes will replace the current cancer treatment.
He said it could be used on humans within two years.
Once it is adapted to humans, the treatment can be highly personalised, Peer told The Times of Israel.
Therefore the dose can be changed based on the biopsy, and could be given as a general injection or an injection directly into the tumour.
"The technology needs to be further developed, but the main thing is we have shown that this can kill cancer cells," he said.
