Chemotherapy has been the backbone of cancer treatment for decades, but it comes with a cost that patients know too well. Because most chemotherapy drugs cannot distinguish between cancerous and healthy cells, they damage both — causing hair loss, severe fatigue, nausea, weakened immunity, and a range of other side effects that can be as debilitating as the disease itself.

The search for a more precise alternative — one that zeroes in on cancer cells while sparing the rest — has driven cancer research for years.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) in Varanasi have now published findings that bring that goal measurably closer.

A team led by Professor Vikas Kumar Dubey from the Department of Biochemical Engineering, along with scholars Shivkumar and Raj Bahadur Singh, has identified a chemical compound that selectively targets breast cancer cells, restricts their growth, and pushes them towards self-destruction without affecting healthy tissue in laboratory conditions.

Finding one molecule among millions

Dubey and his team spent nearly one and a half years developing a new anticancer drug candidate. During the study, they analysed millions of chemical compounds in the ZINC database and identified a promising molecule,........

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