Researchers claim that they have discover the ‘Achilles’ heel’ of cancer which could lead to treatments for cases where disease has spread throughout the body.

They found that all cancer cells carry a ‘flag’, which can be spotted by the immune system despite their mutation.

Current treatments are often unsuccessful because cancer disease evolves rapidly and changes so it can evade drugs.

But, what scientists at University College London and Cancer Research UK discovered was that even when the cancer cells have been mutated, they still carry their signature molecules which never change.

These molecules are antigens, meaning toxins that can be spotted by the immune system. The immune cells that battle these antigens are already in the human body, but they are so few that cannot do it effectively.

However by ‘fishing out’ those immune cells and multiplying them in the laboratory, scientists claim that it is possible to wipe out cancer, even when it has spread throughout the body.

This means that, in future, doctors would be able to look at the genetic profile of a tumor in order to locate these ‘flags’ and then generate billions of special immune cells to kill the tumors.

The same genetic profile could also be used to create a vaccine to enhance the body’s defense system against the cancer.

The most important part, though, is that it would work on cancer that had spread throughout the body, because all these tumors would have the same genetic ‘flag.’

As Dr Sergio Quezada, Cancer Research UK scientist and head of the Immune Regulation and Cancer Immunotherapy lab at , expains “The body’s immune system acts as the police trying to tackle cancer, the criminals.”

“Genetically diverse tumours are like a gang of hoodlums involved in different crimes – from robbery to smuggling. And the immune system struggles to keep on top of the cancer – just as it’s difficult for police when there’s so much going on.”

“Our research shows that instead of aimlessly chasing crimes in different neighbourhoods, we can give the police the information they need to get to the kingpin at the root of all organised crime – or the weak spot in a patient’s tumour – to wipe out the problem for good.”