A boost in cancer drug research means that more effective drugs will be available for cancer patients.

Research in the field is massive, yet the failure rate is also high. The expenses are rising for the companies. Many drugs that are initially promising, fail during clinical trials. Since the failure rate is high it costs drug firms and charities such as Cancer Research UK many million pounds.

Cancer Research UK called for pharmaceutical firms and academics to be more open about those which do not make the grade.

Data on 974 drugs under development, gathered by Cancer Research UK experts is still in the development stage. But the experts suggest that only 18% of these drugs will prove successful in clinical trials.

Though it is hoped and required that alternative to conventional chemotherapy will be found as it is painful for the patients and can also have dangerous side-effects. The new drugs would target the cancer cells more directly and cause less damage to healthy ones.

However, Professor Herbie Newell, also from Cancer Research UK, said that decreasing the number of "failures" and their cost to the industry is important. This could only be attained if researchers and drug companies were more open about their research.

"We strongly believe that both industry and academia must improve the availability of data related to failed as well as successful drug development programmes.

"The sharing of such information can only be beneficial for clinical, scientific and commercial reasons - and will help measure our progress as well as pinpoint areas for improvement."