When Anna Olivia Healey died of cancer at nine years old, her grieving parents vowed to honor their daughter's memory and help find a way to beat the cruel disease.

Now, more than 20 years later, Steven and Barbara Healey's goal of sparing thousands of other families from the same heartbreak looks within reach. 

Scientists on Tuesday unveiled results of a 'cancer-killing pill' — named in honor of the little girl from Indiana — which appears to 'annihilate' all types of solid tumors tested in a lab.

AOH1996, coined using Anna's initials and year of birth, seemingly left healthy cells unharmed, too.

And while its not yet proven to work in humans, researchers from one of the leading cancer treatment and research hospitals, City of Hope in California, are very much encouraged by the preliminary findings.

Dr Linda Malkas, who works in the department of molecular diagnostics and experimental therapeutics at City of Hope, pledged to do everything she could to tackle the disease after meeting Mr Healey just months before Anna died from neuroblastoma in 2005. She said the results were 'promising'.