Scientists have identified a new class of targeted cancer drugs that offer the potential to treat patients whose tumours have faulty copies of the BRCA cancer genes.

The Institute of Cancer Research, London, has strongly welcomed the approval by the European Commission of the targeted drug olaparib for men with advanced prostate cancers with genetic alterations in BRCA1 or BRCA2.

Aggressive cancers could be treated with immunotherapies that direct the immune system to kill cancer cells with specific drug resistance-causing mutations, a major new study suggests.