A "vaccine" which harnesses the body’s own immune system to fight prostate cancer has been approved for use by US drug regulators. Provenge – which is designed to be used in men with advanced disease – is the first of its kind to be accepted by the Food and Drug...

A five-minute, one-off screening test could prevent thousands of people dying from bowel cancer every year, a study published in the Lancet suggests. There are now calls for the test to be rolled out across the UK after results from 200,000 people aged 55-64 found it cut deaths by 43% over 10...

No-one will wait more than one week for the results of cancer tests under a future Labour government if they are re-elected, Gordon Brown has said. Speaking to the Royal College of Nursing congress the prime minister said too many people were waiting more than a month for their results....

People with the skin disease vitiligo may have natural protection against skin cancer, a study suggests. The condition, affecting one in 200, causes pale skin patches that lack pigment and burn easily – leading to an assumed increased risk of skin cancer. But the University of London...

Viruses can be modified to find and destroy cancer cells, according to scientists at the University of Leeds. Their research found that proteins could be added to a virus to allow it to recognise unique markers which appear on the surface of cancer cells. The virus can then deliver gene...