Nobel prize-winning Italian cancer doctor Renato Dulbecco, who did ground-breaking research on the links between tumours and genetic material, has died aged 97.

Dr Dulbecco... was sent as a medic first to France and then to Russia in World War II...

Dr Dulbecco’s death in California was reported by the Italian news agency Ansa.

He was born on February 22, 1914, in Catanzaro in southern Italy but spent most of his life in the US although he returned frequently to Italy and was even a presenter for an Italian song contest in 1999.

Dr Dulbecco, who graduated in medicine in Turin in 1936, was sent as a medic first to France and then to Russia in World War II, where he was injured and spent months in recovery. In 1943, he joined anti-fascist fighters.

After the war, he obtained a second degree in physics.

His international career began in 1947 when he left for the US to teach at the California Institute of Technology, and he became a US citizen in 1953.

In 1975, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on tumours.