Scientists claim to have achieved a major breakthrough by creating a "wonder drug" which kills off cancer - in fact, it could wipe out some of the most deadly forms of the disease.

An international team, led by University of California, says that the KG5 drug works by making cancer
 cells "commit suicide"; it stops tumorous cells multiplying and they then shut themselves down, the
'Nature Medicine' journal reported.

The radical drug will bring fresh hope to patients with aggressive and deadly tumours and could be
available in as little as five years, say the scientists , who hope to deliver the it in pill form,
 which has very few side-effects .

 Proved effective in tests against pancreatic, breast and  kidney cancers, it could well have a positive effect on a broad range of other tumours.

KG5 works in a totally different way to traditional therapies by altering the structure of a cancer growth
protein, an enzyme known as RAF.

The protein has been longstudied , but its role in cell division - critical to cell proliferation and
tumour growth - is a surprise. Existing treatments block RAF's activity. However, KG5 changes the entire
 shape of the protein, which neutralizes it without leading to unwanted side-effects . To date, KG5 has
been tested in animals and tissue samples taken from patients.

The team has since developed variants of KG5 that are 100-fold more powerful than the original drug.