Tobacco could help treat cancer

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The leaves of the tobacco plant – responsible for millions of cases of cancer – could in fact treat one of form of the disease, scientists say.

Scientists in America have used the plant to 'grow' key elements of a cancer vaccine and according to the study by the National Academy of Sciences, they could be used to fight a form of lymphoma.

Experts this side of the pond say that although the development is 'potentially exciting', further research is necessary to test how well the vaccine works.

A spokesman for Cancer Research UK, said: 'While these results could potentially be very exciting, this was a small and early-stage trial and it did not look at whether this vaccination strategy reduced the size of the tumours.'

'This is a good foundation for future work, but a larger study will be needed to test the success of this plant-made antibody in fighting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.'

Tuesday 22 July 2008

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