Cyclosporin readily seeps into cells where it attaches itself to the protein. [Matthew Harding] said the protein is a receptor for cyclosporin.

Harding said in cancer cells grown in the laboratory that could resist the cancer drug Adramycin, adding cyclosporin made the cells vulnerable again. The cancer cells could no longer pump out the cancer drug and survive. He said when cyclosporin's chemical structure was altered slightly so the drug no longer suppressed the immune system it still made drug-resistent cancer cells sensitive again.

Two less severe forms of skin cancer are caused by exposure to sunlight in 90 per cent of cases and sunlight is a co-factor in causing the most serious form, malignant melanoma. He said each sponge, just big enough to be seen by the naked eye, can be loaded with its own weight in sunscreen and holds the suncreen on the skin's surface so it is not rubbed off nor excessively absorbed by the skin. Some people, in particular fair-skinned blue-eyed blonds who need sunscreen the most, find it irritates their skin because they absorb it more readily.