University of Texas scientists are destroying cancerous tumors in mice by engineering blood clots that starve the tumors to death, an advance that could be tested in people within two years.

The therapy, much like killing a plant by cutting its roots, caused rapid cancer-cell death within 24 hours, Dr. Philip Thorpe of UT’s Southwestern Medical Center reports Friday in the journal Science.

Two weeks later, tumors had disappeared in 38 percent of the mice and had shrunk by more than half in another 24 percent.

Much work is needed to prove the treatment could work in people. But it could one day offer doctors a less-toxic alternative to chemotherapy for breast, lung, ovarian and other cancers.