More than 50 per cent deaths in cancer patients occur due to the spread of cancer cells from the primary site to other parts of the body. Indicating to slower advances in this area this happens inspite of the fact that most recent advances in cancer treatment tend to target tumors at the primary site of origin.

Scientists from Britain have found a tumor suppressor protein called p53 that helps protect against cancer in healthy people. It was found that in many cancer patients a transformation occurs in the gene that codes for p53 that leads to an altered p53 that has lost its functions. The protein however flips in some patients that allow cancerous cells to break away, move and survive elsewhere in the body.

This research, published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell last week, was carried out by two teams of experts working side by side in the pioneering Cancer Research UK institute.

Professor Karen Vousden, co-author and an expert of P53, said, "Understanding what goes wrong with cells and proteins to allow cancer to spread will make it much easier to fix or stop. Working together with other experts at the institute has allowed us to make this discovery so quickly."

The biggest challenge according to experts presently was to stop cancer from spreading to other parts of the body.