A group of U.S. researchers has developed a new "cancer-killing pill" that could target and kill solid tumors while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

That's according to their preclinical research findings, published Aug. 1 in the Cell Chemical Biology journal.

Titled "Small Molecule Targeting of Transcription-Replication Conflict for Selective Chemotherapy," the study found that a drug the researchers developed was able to selectively disrupt DNA replication and repair in cancer cells.

The drug is called AOH1996. It was named after Anna Olivia Healey, who was born in 1996 and died of a rare form of cancer called neuroblastoma when she was 9 years old.

Linda Malkas, a senior author of the new study based at the City of Hope, has been developing the drug over the past two decades.

City of Hope is a private, non-profit clinical research center, hospital, and graduate school in Duarte, California. It's one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States.