Scientists have developed a new method to treat tumours that works by placing harmless metal implants at the cancer site.
The discovery may help cut down unwanted side effects, such as hair loss, tiredness and nausea from chemotherapy in cancer patients.
It could also make treatment more targeted than existing therapies, researchers said.
The side effects occur when chemotherapy drugs carried in the blood kill healthy cells as well as cancer cells.
The scientists found that they could alter the chemical composition of commonly used chemotherapy drugs so that they only become active when they come into contact with a metal called palladium.
Researchers hope that by implanting small devices coated with palladium into patients' tumours, the drugs would become activated only where they are needed, causing minimal damage to the rest of the body.
The approach led by scientists from the University of Edinburgh, UK will first need to be tested in animals before it can be studied in patients, researchers said.
"It will be several years before we're able to start treating patients but we're hopeful that this approach will lead to better tolerated cancer therapies in the future," Dr Asier Unciti-Broceta, who led the study, said.
The discovery was published in the journal Nature Communications.
