A new drug is providing renewed hope in the treatment of aggressive skin cancer, reports the Daily Mail.
The drug ipilimumab could increase life expectancy by at least four months, even if the cancer has spread to other organs. Among those involved in the drug trials, some patients are still alive four years after treatment.
Forty-six percent of patients with advanced melanoma were alive after one year, compared to only 25 percent of those did not receive the treatment. After two years, 24 percent of the patients who received ipilimumab were still alive, compared to 14 percent of those without treatment.
Although the drug is very expensive, doctors say it is the first real breakthrough in skin cancer treatment since the 1970s.
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