Cancer cells can be cured by an enzyme

An enzyme HtrA2 that can clean cancer cells of a gene is believed to be responsible for deadly diseases discovered by U.K doctors.

Dr Jorg Hartkamp and Dr Stefan Roberts have found that the protease HtrA2 enzyme can "clean" cells of the oncogene -- WT1 -- which is found at high levels in many leukaemias and solid cancers such as breast and lung cancer.

They will work on developing new drugs for all these cancers which will help in elevate WT1 expression.

WT1 cancer was discovered 20 years ago, it is a rare kind of cancer that effects one in 10,000 children.

It suppresses the wilms tumour of the kidney. However it has a cancer causing role in other forms of the disease, particularly leukaemias such as acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML).

This research is on early stage and hopefully it will improve treatment of types of cancer.