HAIR-loss and vomiting will no longer be symptoms of cancer therapy if Geelong researchers are successful in a new treatment bid.

While chemotherapy destroys any fast-dividing cells in the body, including hair cells and good stomach bacteria, the proposed treatment dubbed the "smart bomb" will work like a homing missile.

The smart bomb involves two stages, with the Deakin Geelong team working on the seek, and a collaborative Indian Institute of Technology, the destroy.

A nano-particle attaches to the cancer cells once injected into the bloodstream before a cargo of drugs is unloaded into the cell.

Project leader, Associate Professor Wei Duan, said anti-cancer drugs were powerful but lacked accuracy.

"Our precision-guided cancer therapy will afford reduced side-effects, decreased toxicity to normal cells," he said. "We will probably still be using existing drugs but the way we use them will be much more specific.

"We're not saying we will have a cure cancer in 10 years but at least these people will live longer and importantly enjoy a higher quality of life."

The penetration of the smart-bomb is also more likely to kill the root of the cell and stop re-sprouting.

"Cancer cells are particularly difficult to kill as they contain so-called cancer stem cells, the root or seed cancer cells that are resistant to drugs," Associate Prof Duan said.

"While current treatments kill the bulk of the cancer cell, the cancer root escapes the therapy and can regenerate into a new cancer mass.

"The aim of our research is to develop a smart bomb that can penetrate the cell and release the drugs within the cells, rather than from the outside."

The smart-bomb concept already works in a petri-dish the aim of Geelong and Indian researchers is to replicate that in animals then humans.

If all goes plan the research team hopes to start clinical trials in three to four years.