Embryos hold clue to cancer puzzle

A London-based Australian scientist working on research illegal in Australia has made a breakthrough that could result in a cancer vaccine.

Professor Marilyn Monk's research may also lead to better ways of targeting cancer so that fewer healthy cells are destroyed. Professor Monk and her team at the Institute of Child Health in London used 'spare' IVF embryos, unused and donated by the couple involved (research impossible under Australia laws banning human embryo experimentation).

They found that genes present in human embryos in their first days in existence, but not in normal body cells, are also present in cancer tumours. In an embryo, those cells then proliferate to create all the cells in a human body.

Their presence in cancer cells suggested that the cells had forgotten their programming for their task within the body, returning to the same state as an embryo and proliferating into a lump. Further research and clinical trials is expected to take another five to ten years.