Adelaide doctors believe they've made a major breakthrough in cancer treatment, and will conduct clinical trials of a new technology to find, and hopefully destroy, cancer cells.

Key points: A clinical trial will begin in 2020 for ovarian and lung cancer patients

A clinical trial will begin in 2020 for ovarian and lung cancer patients The treatment uses antibodies to target dead or dying cancer cells

The treatment uses antibodies to target dead or dying cancer cells Researchers hope it will help enhance the effect of chemotherapy

The treatment — developed by clinical teams at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) — has secured $33 million in funding to move to human trials, after researchers had success treating mice suffering with lymphoma.

Head of RAH's cancer clinical trials unit, Professor Michael Brown, said the new technique would use antibodies that carry a low dose of radiation to target dead or dying cancer cells.

The antibody can act as a diagnostic tool to measure the effectiveness of treatment.

"The radiation signal is picked up on a PET scan, so we can see in patients who have received chemotherapy just how well the chemotherapy is killing the cancer cells," Professor Brown said.

"Normally patients would take two or three cycles of chemotherapy and CT scans to know whether their tumour has shrunk and when their tumour has shrunk.

"We will know within the first cycle, before the second is delivered, whether it's maximised tumour cell kill, which leads to shrinking."

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 35 seconds 35 s This visualisation from SA Health shows how the cancer treatment works.

He said the treatment would hopefully enhance the effect of chemotherapy, by helping doctors directly target the drug to cancer cells.

"Instead of it just having a certain amount of tumour cell killed, we would add to that to reduce the bulk of it more quickly and possibly eradicate it," he said.

The trial will first be tested on lung and ovarian cancer patients, however Professor Brown said researchers believed the approach could boost the effect of other cancer treatments.

'The only way we are ever going to beat cancer'

Ovarian cancer fighter Vicki-Lee Knowles says anyone who is eligible should take part in the clinical trial, which has the potential to save others.

Ms Knowles, 54, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in December 2016 and after initially having success from chemotherapy, has now been told she is terminally ill.

She said knowing if the treatment was working earlier could ease the minds of a lot of cancer sufferers who experience anxiety from the unknown.

"… at night you lie in bed wondering if what you're going through is actually killing the cancer," she said.

"I think from a mental health [and] emotional wellbeing perspective … the sooner I can know that this is working, the better off I feel.

"And if it wasn't working, what are my options around quality of life or other treatments."

She said not knowing if the chemotherapy treatment had worked was "traumatic" and she urged women eligible to take part in the trial.

Johanna Churchill was diagnosed with ovarian cancer earlier this year. ( ABC News: Casey Briggs )

"I lost all my hair, I had mouth ulcers and I had constant diarrhea, I had fevers, I couldn't eat, it was just the worst six months of my life," she said.

"Clinical trials on humans is the only way we are ever going to beat cancer.

"I would encourage any woman out there who is experiencing ovarian cancer. Do it for yourself but also do it for other women."

Her thoughts were echoed by Adelaide's Johanna Churchill, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer earlier this year.

Ms Churchill, 51, said there was a lot of anxiety associated with not knowing if treatment had worked for patients after months of agony.

"In some respects, it's actually more difficult after the treatment is finished," she said.

"If you can know that the chemotherapy has been working for you, I think that would do a great deal to help your mental health issues."

'Potential to improve treatment and survival'

SA Health Minister Stephen Wade said the $33 million investment in the local research was the largest commercial deal for developed medical technology in Adelaide in 20 years.

Mr Wade says the trial will fast-track the technology for patients. ( ABC News: Ben Pettitt )

"This partnership, driven by AusHealth, links RAH researchers with pharmaceutical investors, and will help to fast-track bringing this important technology to patients," Mr Wade said.

"The relatively new way to treat cancers has the potential to both improve treatment regimens and survival."

AusHealth — a company that supports the commercialisation of medical technologies — has also thrown its support behind the project.

Professor Brown said the trial would include 18 patients who would be observed over six weeks after treatment with recruitment to begin in early 2020.