The Devil Facial Tumour Disease is a transmissible cancer that has reduced Tasmania’s devil population by 80 per cent.

To strengthen their immunotherapy experiments, the Menzies Devil Facial Tumour Disease Team tested live cancer cells on devils in captivity, after only having utilised dead cells in the past.

The cells were cultured in such a way that they took on the appearance of live cells, but did not necessarily pose the threat of transmitting the disease.

In testing this new methodology, the research team appeared to have made a startling breakthrough.

Menzies DFTD research team leader Professor Greg Woods said he and his team were essentially fighting fire with fire by targeting the disease with live tumour cells.

He recounted a devil with a fast-growing tumour that the research team had in captivity.

“Once [the tumour] gets to a certain size, ethically we have to euthanise the devil,” he said.

“[So] we thought, ‘This is our last attempt. Let’s try this’.

“We suspected it would work ... [but] we were amazed at how quickly it responded.

“In two weeks, you could [see] the tumour starting to get smaller.”

Environment and Parks Minister Matthew Groom said it was “really important” for scientists to be willing to go out on a limb like the Menzies research team were.

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor, meanwhile, congratulated the research team on their discovery.

Save the Tasmanian Devil Program manager David Pemberton said Professor Woods’ team’s success was a necessary step on the path to a cure for DFTD.

“When you’re trying to develop vaccines like this, inevitably you have to trial them against the real thing,” Dr Pemberton said.

Professor Woods said his team’s next goal was to improve the vaccine by “manipulating the tumour cells to make them produce better responses”.