Scientists in the region have been given a £100,000 grant to find better ways of treating drug-resistant children.

The grant from the Leukaemia Research Fund will be used to help the minority of young leukaemia patients who do not respond well to a cancer-killing drug called vincristine.

If scientists at Newcastle University are successful they should be able to come up with tailor-made drug combinations which will kill off cancer cells.

Vincristine, an alkaloid compound from a plant called the Rosy Periwinkle, is widely used by doctors at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle to clear leukaemia cells from the bone marrow.

Before a bone marrow transplant can be attempted the marrow must be completely free of cancer cells.

The drug is given to children in the first phase of treatment for children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

While the great majority of children with this form of cancer respond well to vincristine a small number are more resistant to it.

These children often require further aggressive drug treatment which increases their risk of side-effects such as muscle weakness, fits and painful limbs.

Professor Andrew Hall, who heads Newcastle University's Molecular Pharmacology Programme, said: "We will be trying to decide what is the best combination of cancer drugs for each individual patient. At the moment we have a bit of a one-size-fits-all approach but every patient is genetically different and we need a more bespoke approach."

The researchers are particularly interested in two human genes - MDR1 and MRP1 - which in some children appear to help leukaemia cells survive drug treatment.

If a way can be found to disarm this mechanism, scientists hope that all children will respond to treatment.

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia accounts for 85 per cent of childhood leukaemias.

Around 80 per cent of children will be cured of this form of the disease. The challenge now is to find a cure for the remaining children for whom existing treatment is not good enough.

It is vital that any improved form of treatment can be easily tolerated by children and the risk of life-threatening complications is reduced.

During the research, blood cells from more than 50 children with leukaemia will be analysed by a team led by Dr Julie Irving.