Plants hold key to developing future cancer treatments

Scientists say the natural world has an important role to play in creating new drugs to fight the disease

Cancer care relies on complex therapies involving radioactive materials and sophisticated drugs and has come far from past remedies based on plants and herbs.

However, scientists warn there is still a need to understand the botanical roots of tumour treatments - to maintain new sources of drugs and to ensure plant resources are not overexploited. The natural world still has a lot to teach us about tackling disease.