Scientists of the Boston-area have discovered a path breaking technique to target the stem cells that cause cancerous breast cancer tumor growth. It has a distinct advantage over chemotherapy, where the tumor reoccurs because of its stem cells being intact.

A farm antibiotic called salinomycin was found to be extremely toxic to the stem cells causing breast cancer. Salinomycin was found to be 100 times more effective than paclitaxel, another commonly used cancer drug. It was tested inmice and was found to have slowed down the tumor growth.

Dr John Stingl, group leader in mammary stem cell biology at Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Research Institute, said: "This research also introduces a completely new way of identifying cancer drugs. The challenge for the future is to bring this class of drugs to the clinic and to identify the patients that are likely to respond to them."

The clinical tests can take years to verify its effectiveness in humans but the good news is that the discovery of this compound has paved the path for many more related compounds which could target the centers for tumor growth instead of the tumor as a whole.