Last Updated: Monday, May 26, 2008 | 12:28 PM ET CBC News

A protein found on immune cells in the body may one day be recruited to attack cancerous tumours, say researchers in Britain and Toronto.

The scientists at the London Research Institute, the University of London and the University of Toronto believe a vaccine hitched to the protein could signal to a person's immune system to attack cancer cells.

In tests on mice, the researchers identified a dendritic cell protein called DNGR-1. Dendritic cells help stimulate the immune response to pathogens, telling the immune cells where to attack.

The scientists believe they could use a vaccine to attach molecules of a cancer to the protein, which would cause the dendritic cells to direct an attack on the cancerous tumour.

"We have now found a tag on dendritic cells, called DNGR-1, which can be targeted by vaccines," said the lead author of the study, Caetano Reis e Sousa of the London Research Institute, in a release.

"Vaccines will carry a sample of the offending molecule and deliver it to DNGR-1 on the dendritic cells. The dendritic cell in turn will present the molecule to the armies of T cells and instruct them to attack."

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