According to latest reports, a revolutionary new study may boost the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs used to fight cancer and significantly curb the usual, horrible side effects.

'In addition to making chemotherapy more effective at eliminating tumour cells from the body, the study suggests that it is also possible to lower dosage levels to a point where toxic side effects from the drugs are unlikely to occur,' says a report in The Independent.

The pioneering medical technique called RNA interference focused on 'silencing' or 'switching off' genes that appear to be turned on as part of the cancerous process, says another report in the Daily Mail.

In the American study, it was found that when those genes were silenced, the tumour cells become significantly -- as much as 10,000 times more, it was found in an experiment with the anti-cancer drug Taxol -- more susceptible to anti-cancer drugs.

But it may be years before human cancer patients can benefit from the findings of the study. The Independent report quotes a scientist involved in the study as saying at least three to five years more of clinical trials are needed.