The research used a miniscule gene transport system to deliver a poison directly into cancerous cells.
It is hoped the new technique could overcome the side effects of treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Using a Designer Biomimetic Vector (DBV), Dr Helen McCarthy, from Queen's School of Pharmacy, packaged a gene into a nanoparticle 400 times smaller than the width of a human hair, allowing it to be delivered straight into breast cancer cells in the laboratory.
This meant that gene (iNOS), which specifically targets breast cancer cells using DBV, would force the cells to produce poisonous nitric oxide.
This would either kill the cells outright or make them more vulnerable to being destroyed by chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Improve
As this approach leaves normal healthy breast cells unaffected, this would overcome many of the toxic side effects of current treatments.
Further investigation is needed but the technique could be trialled in patients in as little as five years.
Dr McCarthy's next step is to turn the nanoparticles into a dried powder that could be easily transported and reconstituted before being given to patients.
Dr McCarthy said: "A major stumbling block to using gene therapy in the past has been the lack of an effective delivery system.
"Combining the DBV with the iNOS gene has proved successful in killing breast cancer cells in the laboratory.
"In the long term, I see this being used to treat people with metastatic breast cancer that has spread to the bones."
Dr McCarthy, said patients would receive the targeted treatment 24-hours ahead of chemotherapy.
"The treatment would kill the breast cancer cells as well as improving the radiation or chemotherapy," she said.

Elstree 1976 was directed by Jon Spira, from Thrupp, Oxfordshire, and completed after a Kickstarter campaign raised more than Â£40,000.
He said a follow-up, Elstree 1979, would focus on the stunt team from Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back.
Filming is due to start this summer with the filmmakers hoping to release the documentary next year.
It is being produced by the Works Film Group.  However, it has not yet been decided whether there will be a second Kickstarter campaign.
Mr Spira said: "Where '76 dealt with the supporting artists of A New Hope, this film will look at the stunt team from Empire Strikes Back.
"Wider than that, we will tell the story of that generation of British stunt performers. We can't wait to start shooting it."
The first film featured Star Wars legends such as Dave Prowse, who played Darth Vader, and Jeremy Bulloch, who played Boba Fett, alongside little known extras.
Elstree 1979 will look at the work of stuntmen Colin Skeaping and Vic Armstrong, and recreate the scene in which Luke Skywalker is blown through a window during the film's climactic duel.
About 1,000 people backed Elstree 1976 on Kickstarter.
Scientists at Queen's University in Belfast have discovered a new way of causing breast cancer cells to self destruct.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
A sequel to a crowdfunded film about the lives of supporting artists in Star Wars has been announced.