A tiny sea-bed animal called a sea squirt may be coming to the aid of cancer patients.
An Italian-led study has shown that a molecule extracted from the squirt is effective against a cancer called liposarcoma, or cancer of the body's fatty tissue.
Oncologists from Milan, Boston, London, Lyon and Paris injected the molecule into 50 patients with an advanced form of the cancer.
They achieved a success rate of more than 50%.
In two cases it stopped the cancer growing completely and in 24 a partial reduction was seen.
Milan researcher Federica Gross, who headed up the international team, said: "This looks like a significant hope for developing new drugs for this condition".
There are currently few drugs against liposarcoma and doctors hope to catch it in time so they can remove it totally.
"The new molecule looks like it could also be used in the pre-operative stage," Grosso told Lancet Oncology.
