A little-known antibiotic shows promise as an anti-cancer treatment, according to research published yesterday. The drug, siomycin A, inhibits a cancer gene found to be overactive in most human tumours, without damaging normal cells. Experiments on tissue cells showed it induced cancer cells to commit suicide.

Andrei Gartel, who led the research at the University of Illinois, in Chicago, said siomycin was promising because it was not toxic. But he acknowledged the drug must undergo further laboratory tests and tests on animals before human trials could be planned.