Scientists use arsenic to fight blood cancer

SHANGHAI - Scientists in China have demonstrated how arsenic, a popular poison in the Middle Ages, fights blood cancer by targeting and killing specific proteins that keep the disease alive.

"Our study showed how arsenic directly targets these proteins and kills them," said lead researcher Zhang Xiaowei at the State Key Laboratory of Medical Genomics in Shanghai.

"Unlike chemotherapy, the side effects of arsenic in treating acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) are very low," Zhang said.