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The team of British researchers believe the groundbreaking method could shrink tumours and be more effective than any other existing treatments - such as chemotherapy.

The new process which kills off cancer cells has been called Caspase Independent Cell Death (CICD) and in trials led to the complete eradication of tumours in experimental models.

Scientists now believe the groundbreaking new research, published in Nature Cell Biology, could revolutionise the way cancer is tackled.

Lead author Dr Stephen Tait, from the University of Glasgow, explained: We were interested in identifying an alternative way to kill cancer cells. And weve identified a process called Caspase Independent Cell Death that appears, really excitingly, to be more effective (than other current methods).

Currently, most anti-cancer therapies - chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy - work by killing cancer cells through a process called apoptosis, which activates proteins called caspases, leading to cell death.

We were interested in identifying an alternative way to kill cancer cells

Lead author Dr Stephen Tait

But in apoptosis, therapies often fail to kill all the cancer cells, leading to disease recurrence, and can also have unwanted side effects that may even promote cancer.

The scientists at the University of Glasgow wanted to develop a way to improve therapy that induces cancer cell killing while also mitigating unwanted toxicity.

Announcing the successful new process, Dr Tait, also of the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute, Institute of Cancer Sciences, said: Our research found that triggering Caspase-Independent Cell Death (CICD), but not apoptosis, often led to complete tumour regression.

Especially under conditions of partial therapeutic response, as our experiments mimic, our data suggests that triggering tumour-specific CICD, rather than apoptosis, may be a more effective way to treat cancer.

Unlike apoptosis, which is a silent form of cell death, when cancer cells die through CICD, they alert the immune system through the release of inflammatory proteins.

The immune system can then attack the remaining tumour cells that evaded initial therapy-induced death.

The researchers used lab-grown colorectal cancer cells to show the advantage of killing cancer cells via CICD, however, these benefits may be applicable to a wide-range of cancer types.

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Dr Tait added: In essence, this mechanism has the potential to dramatically improve the effectiveness of anticancer therapy and reduce unwanted toxicity.

"Taking into consideration our findings, we propose that engaging CICD as a means of anti-cancer therapy warrants further investigation.

And he explained why it could be more effective than existing traditional treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

He said: What we found in essence is the cells that undergo Caspase Independent Cell Death, they stimulate an immune response against the rest of the rumour.

In effect, you dont necessarily need to kill all the tumour cells with therapy because weve now elicited an immune response that then clears out the remaining tumour - in doing so eradicating the cancer.

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Latest figures show that half of all Britons born after 1960 will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lifetime.

Experts say four in 10 cancer cases are linked to lifestyle factors.

Smoking remains the largest single preventable cause.

More than half of cancer deaths in the UK are of people aged 75 years and over.

Last night, cancer research bodies in the UK gave the new research a warm welcome.

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Dr Justine Alford, Cancer Research UKs senior science information officer, said: Although many cancer treatments work by triggering apoptosis, that method sometimes fails to finish the job and instead may lead to the tumour becoming harder to treat.

And she added: This new research suggests there could be a better way to kill cancer cells which, as an added bonus, also activates the immune system.

Now scientists need to investigate this idea further and, if further studies confirm it is effective, develop ways to trigger this particular route of cell death in humans.

The new paper is published in Nature Cell Biology.

The paper was majority funded by Cancer Research UK.

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Cancer breakthrough: Scientists discovery new process which triggers death of cancer cells - Express.co.uk