The tobacco plant - a cause of cancer - may offer the means to treat one form of the disease, a study suggests.

US scientists used the plant to "grow" key components of a cancer vaccine.

The National Academy of Sciences study suggests they could be used to tackle a form of lymphoma.

UK specialists said while "potentially exciting", more research would be needed to test how well the vaccine actually worked.


It's pretty cool technology - and it's really ironic that you would make a treatment for cancer out of tobacco
Dr Ronald Levy
Stanford University

The ironic new role for tobacco is the work of researchers from Stanford University in California.

They are using the plants as factories for an antibody chemical specific to the cells which cause follicular B-cell lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

These antibodies are put into a patient newly-diagnosed with the disease, to "prime" the body's immune system to attack any cell carrying them.

If successful, this would mean the body would then recognise and destroy the lymphoma cells.

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