Vaccine hope for breast cancer

Scientists have developed a vaccine against cancer that reduces the size of breast tumours by more than 80 per cent when tested on laboratory mice.

The vaccine works by stimulating the body's immune system to recognise a unique kind of sugar molecule that sticks out from the surface of the cancerous cells. The immune system then attacks the tumour, leaving healthy tissue undamaged.

Further tests on animals will be necessary before the vaccine can be tried on humans. The study, at the University of Georgia, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.