A new type of drug that targets a genetic weakness in an untreatable childhood brain cancer could become the first ever treatment designed to target the disease. The prototype treatment could also offer hope for patients with the rare and devastating ‘stone man syndrome’ – in which muscles and ligaments turn to bone.

Scientists have identified a gene mutation in the tumours of men with prostate cancer that is linked to very poor survival – and which could be used to pick out patients for more intensive treatment.

Cancers can make themselves harder for new immunotherapies to see by ‘changing their spots’ – and switching off a key molecule on the surface of cells that is otherwise recognised by treatment.