The study also shows that early-stage breast cancer patients who are African-American women who are diagnosed with the disease at a younger age have a higher disease stage at diagnosis (larger tumors and cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes) and more aggressive tumors than Caucasian women who undergo similar treatment.

???This study confirms the aggressive nature of breast cancer in African-American women and emphasizes how important it is for all African-American women to see their healthcare providers regularly and to go for screening mammograms to try to catch any abnormalities early,??? said Meena S. Moran, M.D., the lead author of the study and a radiation oncologist at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn. ???This study also points out the need for further research in evaluating the underlying molecular, genetic and biological differences in breast cancers in African-American women so that we can develop better strategies for helping these women beat their cancer.???

For patients with early-stage breast cancer, the current standard treatment involves a lumpectomy, followed by radiation therapy to the breast over a five to six-and-a-half-week period to kill any remaining cancer cells.

The cohort study involved 2,382 patients over a 30-year period who underwent a lumpectomy and radiation therapy for early-stage breast cancer. Researchers wanted to find out if there were differences in the outcomes between AfricanAmerican patients and Caucasians. Findings showed that 10 years after treatment with lumpectomy and radiation, 17 percent of African-American women had their breast cancer recur compared with 13 percent of Causcasian patients.

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When tests were conducted on six mice who had been given ovarian cancer, the treatment killed the tumours in five of the six rodents.

In an ongoing series of experiments, the researchers have designed antibodies that latch directly on to tumours as they circulate in the bloodstream and Professor Self, describes the therapy as the equivalent of ultra-specific magic bullets.

The team suggest the therapy might be particularly effective against prostate cancer, which can be partially removed by surgery, but is a delicate operation because of the danger of damaging a key nerve that could leave the patient becoming impotent or incontinent.

He says his "vision of the future" was one in which someone could be treated as an outpatient, arriving for an injection of cloaked antibodies and then waiting no more than an hour for a few minutes of light therapy.

It is hoped that funding will ensure that clinical trials on humans will begin next year, which will be on secondary skin cancers and not internal tumours.

However experts say even if these and the next stage of clinical trials are successful, it could be more than a decade before such treatment becomes available.

The research appears in the journal ChemMedChem.