Bacteria are rapidly emerging as a new class of "living medicines" used to kill cancer cells.

We're still a long way from a "cure" for cancer.

But one day we could have programmable, self-navigating bacteria that find tumours, release treatment only where needed, then vanish without a trace.

Here's where the science is up to.

Current treatments aren't perfect

Many tumours are hard to treat. Sometimes, treatments cannot penetrate them. Other times, tumours can "fight back" by suppressing certain parts of the immune system, reducing the impact of treatments. Or tumours can develop resistance to treatments.

Using bacteria could overcome these obstacles.

More than a century ago, surgeons noticed some people with cancer who developed bacterial infections unexpectedly went into remi

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