Scientists have developed an implant that inserts a cancer vaccine into the skin to destroy tumours without causing damage to any other part of the body.

Researchers from Harvard University said, it is the first "cancer vaccine" delivered in the form of a plastic implant that can attack and destroy tumours.

According to the study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the implant, a tiny disk, works by releasing chemicals that attract a specific type of immune cells called dendritic cells which are encouraged to fight and kill cancer cells.

Cancer cells are good at evading the immune system because the body does not recognise them as "foreign".

This study provides some useful insights into how we can effectively train the immune system to recognise and destroy cancer cells but most other studies have looked at removing immune cells from the body, reprogramming them to recognize the individual's cancer and then returning them.

Once inside, the immune cells are exposed to proteins found on the surface of the cancer cells to be targeted.

With this information, the dendritic cells move on to the lymph nodes where they tell another type of immune cell, known as T cells, to hunt down and kill the cancer cells.

In mice with skin cancer, the implant was shown to successfully eliminate the tumours, BBC reported.

The researchers believe such implants could one day be used alongside chemotherapy and surgery to eliminate melanoma tumours, the most serious form of skin cancer.