CARDIFF, BRITAIN — Cardiff University researchers have identified a mechanism in our immune system that could be utilized to treat most cancers.

According to the study published in Nature Immunology, certain T-cells can be engineered to kill prostate, breast, lung and other cancers, albeit only in lab settings."

T-cells are a type of lymphocytes found in the blood that searches and destroys threats to the body that include infections to cancers.

Cardiff University says in a press statement that one type of T-cells was found to possess a unique receptor that allows them to detect almost all cancer cells.

The BBC reports that scientists may be able to take blood from a cancer patient and isolate their T-cells.

The T-cells could then be reprogrammed by a harmless virus to grow the special receptor and cultured before the immune cells are reintroduced to fight the patient's cancer cells.

T-cells with the special receptors are able to ignore healthy cells and attack the cancerous tissue, including tumors, which normal T-cells cannot.