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Introducing medication-free spells to some cancer treatments may keep patients alive for longer, studies in mice with skin cancer suggest.
The animals had melanoma, which can rapidly become resistant to treatments.
However, a study in the journal Nature showed tumours also became dependent on the drug to survive. Withdrawing treatment caused tumours to shrink.
Experts said the findings were exciting, but still needed testing in people.
A team of scientists at the University of California, San Francisco and University Hospital Zurich, in Switzerland, were investigating how melanoma cells became resistant to a drug, vemurafenib.
The drug can slow the progress of a tumour in the short-term, but it soon becomes ineffective with deadly consequences.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20956179
The animals had melanoma, which can rapidly become resistant to treatments.
However, a study in the journal Nature showed tumours also became dependent on the drug to survive. Withdrawing treatment caused tumours to shrink.
Experts said the findings were exciting, but still needed testing in people.
A team of scientists at the University of California, San Francisco and University Hospital Zurich, in Switzerland, were investigating how melanoma cells became resistant to a drug, vemurafenib.
The drug can slow the progress of a tumour in the short-term, but it soon becomes ineffective with deadly consequences.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20956179