According to the reports, scientists claimed to have developed a vaccine that can save women from developing breast cancer and can also treat those suffering from the disease.

All women over 40 could be given a jab that prevents them getting breast cancer. The drug, which goes on trial within a year, has been shown to stop tumors ever appearing and also to attack those that are already present.

The Telegraph has reported that the vaccine can be given to women before they reach their mid-40s, when the risk of breast cancer starts to rise steeply. The drug could wipe out up to 70 percent of breast cancers, saving more than 8,000 lives a year in Britain alone.

According to Vincent Tuohy, the jab's creator, it promised to offer "substantial protection" and raised the prospect of wiping out the disease altogether.

He further said, "We truly believe that a preventive breast cancer vaccine will do to breast cancer what the polio vaccine has done to polio."

The vaccine is based on protein called alpha-lactalbumin that lurks in most breast cancer tumors.

The journal Nature Medicine further reports that in tests on mice bred to develop breast cancers by the age of 10 months, the drug was found to keep them free of tumors.

Suggesting it could be used as a treatment as well as a vaccine, the drug also harnessed the power of the immune system to shrink pre-existing tumors by up to half.

"This research could have important implications for how we might prevent breast cancer in the future. However, this is an early stage study, and we look forward to seeing the results of large-scale clinical trials to find out if this vaccine would be safe and effective in humans, said Caitlin Palframan, of Breakthrough Breast Cancer. (With Inputs from Agencies)