Ground-breaking drug treatment stops late-stage cancers in their tracks by targeting rogue ‘death star’ gene

A BREAKTHROUGH drug combination has stopped late-stage cancers in their tracks by targeting a rogue “death star” gene.

The new treatment will help lung, ovary and thyroid cancer patients who have run out of options, doctors hope.

The drugs would be used to blast tumours caused by mutations on a gene called KRAS and which account for about four in ten cancers.

So far, other treatments have failed to beat the mutated gene, earning it the nickname “death star”.

In a trial by the Institute of Cancer Research, the meds, named VS-6766 and everolimus, stopped advanced lung cancers from growing or even shrank them after chemotherapy had failed.

Professor Udai Banerji said: “We’ve managed to slow cancer’s progression in several patients.”

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Cancer patients should be prescribed fitness classes to boost their survival chances, doctors say.

There were clear “benefits for patients” during treatment, the American Society of Clinical Oncology found.