It seems as if very other day, someone new is claiming to have cured cancer. In fact, I see so many reports on the latest cancer breakthrough that I rarely if ever feel the need to share them. So why this one? What has it got that the others don’t? Lasers. That’s what…

According to New Scientist, researchers at the University of Helsinki “have developed tumour-zapping lasers that can help stop certain forms of cancer from spreading by destroying the lymphatic vessels that act as highways for mutant cells” (is it just me, or is cancer research much cooler when tumours are depicted as racing down a highway whilst being pursued by giant laser beams?).

The treatment, called Photodynamic therapy, is already in use by doctors who inject a light-sensitve drug into the tumours and then fire an infrared laser at them which triggers the injected drug to produce an form of oxygen which destroys cancer cells.

But the researchers believe that by targeting the vessels surrounding the tumours, not just the tumours themselves, they can create a “toxic zone” which would prevent the cancer from being able to spread. The technique has been used to successfully remove all traces of cancer from seven out of a group of eight mice just one day after treatment.

Of course, there’s a great deal of work before a successful trial on 8 mice becomes a successful treatment for humans, but when the day comes, sign me up to man one of those lasers…