Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine have made what could be an enormous breakthrough: they’ve found a weakness in brain tumors that could halt the spread of cancer through the body.

Brain tumors are notoriously deadly and difficult to remove, resisting surgery as well as radiation and chemotherapy, so any advance in this area could be a huge boon to medical science. Oftentimes, the big problem is that even when a tumor is removed, they can return with a vengeance due to lurking cancer stem cells, but researchers have found a way to access a certain protein that would nip it at the bud, according to a UPI report.

Dr. Albert H. Kim, an assistant professor neurological surgery and the study’s senior author, said that the discovery could allow doctors to attack brain tumors at their roots, blocking the stem cells’ ability to regenerate.

The researchers focused on a form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma, a brutal version that usually kills its patient in 15 months on average. Doctors typically remove glioblastomas via surgery, but it comes at a great risk to overall brain function.

In order to find an alternative way, Kim and his colleagues studied the cells themselves, noting that the tumors use a protein known as SOZX2. These cells need another protein, CDC20, in order to manufacturer the SOX2 protein, so if scientists would be able to eliminate the other protein, it would prevent the cells from expanding.

Kim said his research showed that tumor growth dropped by 95 percent compared with tumors that had normal levels of CDC 20.

The study was published in the journal Cell Reports.