London: Researchers at Israel's Ben-Gurion University have discovered that solar energy can kill cancer cells with pinpoint accuracy.

They also claim that the equipment needed for performing surgery by sunlight is hundred times cheaper than laser surgery. The new treatment will greatly benefit developing countries which have financial constraints, but where sunshine is plentiful, according to 'The Independent'.

According to Professor Jeffrey Gordon and his team of researchers using concentrated sunlight focused by a parabolic mirror into a fibre- optic cable could cost between 100 to 1,000 dollars compared with the 100,000 dollars needed to buy a comparable medical laser.

"Even though the deployment of solar radiation for surgery must be restricted to clear-sky periods in sun-belt climates, its appeal lies in its potentially low cost compared with conventional laser fibre-optic treatments," they say in their article which appears in the journal Nature.

The researchers used a "solar concentrator" to destroy small sections of liver tissue in anaesthetised rats. The rodents survived without any apparent side-effects effects.

"The purpose was to kill tissue very rapidly and in a localised fashion, thereby avoiding damage to surrounding tissues," Gordon said.

The next stage was to try and eliminate tumours in laboratory rats and then to move on to experiments with larger animals before attempting clinical trials on humans, the researcher said.

ANI