Women with ectopic pregnancies could be spared fertility-damaging surgery if they are treated with a drug normally used for lung cancer, according to new Scottish research.

In a ground-breaking study, medics treated ectopic pregnancies - where an embryo implants inside the Fallopian tube - by combining an existing treatment with a lung cancer therapy.

They found prescribing both drugs was more effective at helping cure an ectopic pregnancy than the conventional drug alone.

The lung cancer drug gefitinib helps by blocking a protein known to encourage cell growth, and found in high levels at the site of ectopic pregnancies.

The treatment could reduce the need to remove the Fallopian tube in a number of cases, say researchers led by Dr Andrew Horne of Edinburgh University and Dr Stephen Tong at Melbourne University.