A new system designed to evaluate the efficacy of platinum-based cancer treatments could provide a major boost to the sector.

Announcing its latest results, Ciphergen Biosystems took the opportunity to reveal it was planning to work with M.D. Anderson to further develop the idea.

In a statement the firm said the two organisations were "collaborating to discover and characterize markers that can predict a lung cancer patient's response to platinum therapy".

The technology could prove an effective way to maximise the impact of the treatment, and boost platinum's role in helping to combat cancer as the firm explained.

"Only a subset of lung cancer patients responds to platinum therapy, which is extremely costly and has negative side-effects," Ciphergen commented.

Platinum-based treatments have become among the world's foremost strategies for tackling certain cancer tumours in recent years, with development in the field ongoing to eradicate some of the side-effects associated with the course.