Moffitt reacts with skepticism to Israeli company's claim of cancer 'cure'

A cure for cancer. Those four words are the dream of millions who have been touched by the dreaded disease.

A group of researchers in Israel says they have found a way to make curing cancer a reality - in a matter of a year.

Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center say it's a dramatic claim which, whether it's true or not, could impact the lives of millions of patients and their families. 

"It is not really fair for them to announce something like this without really properly vetting it, without peer-reviewed publications or with a clinical trial," said Moffit Cancer Center researcher Vince Luca.

The quest to defeat cancer before it takes over a person's body begins in places like the Moffitt Cancer Center, where Luca showed FOX 13 how a group of Israeli researchers, at a company called AEBI, say they will be able to cure cancer within a year.

Under a microscope, healthy cells look one way, cancer cells another.

"[Certain] receptors give [a] cancer cell its own unique signature," explained researcher Vince Luca.

The Israeli researchers say they can attach a toxin to only cancer cells and kill them, no matter the cancer, with no side effects.

"It is fairly unrealistic," said Luca.

The problem is, Luca explained, many of the good and bad cells look alike and it's hard to match the cancer-killer toxin for a specific kind of cancer.

Though Luca hopes the technique is promising, and some American companies are trying the same method with mixed results, he wonders if AEBI is trying to jumpstart fundraising with the exciting but premature announcement.

Other prominent American doctors echoed Luca's comments, including one from NYU who added anyone who cures cancer will deserve thanks and congratulations.

Whether a cure is a year, decade, or century away, the wait has already - without a doubt - been long enough.

The Israeli company has not done trials on humans yet, but they say it has been effective in mice.