While trying to find a way to prevent cancerous cells from dying during their experiments, researchers at Stanford ended up making a discovery that could make the cells fight cancer.
According to IFLScience, the researchers were investigating the most common form of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) cells, the precursor B cell ALL.
B-ALL comes with a poor prognosis, so the scientists wanted to learn how it worked.
Unfortunately the cells just kept dying.
After exposing the cells to a particular transcription factor - they changed, becoming similar to a kind of white blood cells that eats damaged cells or foreign materials.
In other words, not only were the cells neutralised, they actually became the sorts of cells that could help fight other cancerous cells in the body.
The researchers are now trying to figure out a way to achieve this cell conversion in a clinically viable way - something they have already done for one other type of cancer.
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