CANCER sufferers are being offered new hope following a major breakthrough in research into the root of the disease.

Scientists at York University have become the first in the world to isolate the tumour stem cells that lead to prostate cancer.

Existing therapies adopt an approach similar to pulling weeds from a lawn - pulling off the leaves but leaving the root in place, making recurrence likely.

But researchers at the Yorkshire Cancer Research Unit have now become the first to ever isolate the tumour stem cells which make up one in 1,000 cancer cells.

The breakthrough by the YCR professor of molecular biology, Norman Maitland, and Dr Anne Collins will help the development of therapies for treating stem cells to stop them regenerating.

And s well as prostate cancer the research could also have major implications for cancer of the breast, colon and brain as stem cells also occur in them.

Prof Maitland said: "For the first time we have been able to extract these stem cells from prostate cancers and we are the only people in the world who have been able to propagate them in the laboratory.

"These cells are difficult to see, but Dr Collins has found some clever ways of identifying them."

However he added a not of caution: "It's the most exciting thing I have seen in 10 years, but we don't want to give people false hope because the therapies for treating tumour stem cells have still to be developed."

He added: "We are beginning to understand what they look like. We can now investigate specific therapies for killing the 'roots' rather than the 'leaves' of prostate cancers.

The head of policy and research at the Prostate Cancer Charity, Chris Hiley, said: "This is an exciting development because in the long-term it could offer men with prostate cancer a treatment that could give them a definitive all clear.

"However, like so much science, men should be aware that it will be many years before this research may develop into a treatment doctors can give."

The findings of the research are published in Cancer Research, the journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.