Doctors battling to combat cancer have hailed a revolutionary ­treatment that teaches the body how to kill the disease itself.

Trials of immunotherapy showed remarkable results with 94% of terminal leukaemiapatients told they had just months to live going into remission.

And more than half of 40 suffering other blood cancers were left disease-free, according to US researchers.

The treatment could reduce the ­reliance on chemotherapy, which has debilitating toxic side-effects.

In a second major breakthrough, an Italian study found the therapy could be used to develop a vaccine-style drug that stops the disease coming back after it has been successfully treated.

In the US trial, white blood cells – known as T-cells – were taken from patients suffering acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and genetically modified to target the cancer.