Cancer experts in York have claimed a major breakthrough in combating a condition which affects more than half-a-million women worldwide.

Scientists believe an eight-year project involving a research team at the University of York will lead to the development of drugs to target and destroy the cause of cervical cancer.

Professor Norman Maitland, of the department of biology, said: "We think it offers a very real prospect against the virus that causes cervical cancer."

Elaine King, chief executive of Harrogate-based charity Yorkshire Cancer Research, which funded the work, said it brought "very real hope" for sufferers of a disease which has 5,000 new cases each year in the UK, resulting in 2,000 deaths. The York cancer research team, under the direction of Professor Maitland and including structural biologists from the university's chemistry department, has succeeded in determining the structure of a protein, known as E2, that controls the papillomavirus (HPV) - the principal cause of cervical cancer.

Their success, against intense international competition, stems from the use of innovative technology and interdisciplinary work by a group of basic biologists and X-ray crystallographers in the production of crystals of the HPV protein. The breakthrough should allow anti-viral drugs to be designed specifically to control the cancer-causing segment of the protein.

A paper announcing the discovery is published in today's issue of the prestigious scientific journal Nature.

A number of major drug companies have already shown interest in collaborating with the team in developing new drugs made possible by the findings.

Professor Maitland said the research explained much puzzling data. "It opens the door for considerable further work and offers a real possibility of designing a drug to combat the cancer causing human papillomaviruses," he said.

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