Australian scientists said Friday they have developed a cancer treatment which could deliver lethal doses of drugs to tumours without the usual harmful side-effects such as nausea and hair loss.

Research scientist Jennifer MacDiarmid said the cutting-edge technique uses nanotechnology to create particles which directly attack cancer cells with a "lethal payload" of drugs, without flooding the body with toxic chemicals.

"Your hair wouldn't fall out, you wouldn't throw up... some chemotherapy is life-threatening in itself," MacDiarmid told AFP.

The nano-cell, which is about one-fifth the size of a normal cell, is then tagged with antibodies which are attracted to cancerous tumours. Once the cell hits the cancer, the drug is released directly into the malignant growth.

"There is no other system where you can get so much drug concentrated into a little parcel," MacDiarmid said.