Cancer growth

'Handful of changes' make cancer

The team, at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, showed the answer was a tiny handful, between one and 10 mutations depending on the type of tumour.

It has been one of the most hotly debated issues in cancer science for decades.

The findings, published in the journal Cell, could improve treatment for patients.

If you played spot the difference between a cancer and healthy tissue, you could find tens of thousands of differences - or mutations - in the DNA.