The results of a clinical trial into the effectiveness of a newimmunotherapy drugfor a pestilent form of skin cancer are ready to be present at an coming conference , with researchers hailing the study as “ a step forward ” in the quest to overcome the affliction .

Melanomais a condition whereby the skin ’s paint - producing cells – called melanocytes – become cancerous . Often spreading to other part of the body , the disease typically has a very low natural selection charge per unit . concord to Caroline Robert , who lead the study , prior to 2011   the ordinary melanoma diseased person lived for less than one year .

The difficulty in handle the disease owes to the fact that cancer is simply a batch of malfunction body cubicle , rather than an external pathogen . Because the physical structure ’s immune organization contains a number of mechanics that prevent it from put down its own cells – assure it only targets alien encroacher – it does not attack these cancerous cells .

For model , a protein calledprogrammed cell death protein 1(PD-1 ) is found on the surface of ashen blood cells , and serves to keep them in assay by prevent them from assail other body cadre . However , by deactivating this condom feature , researchers suspect it may be possible to temporarily recruit the resistant system of rules to destroy cancerous cellular phone .

To reach this , they experimented with a compound called pembrolizumab , which inhibits the activity of PD-1 . They devote 655 malignant melanoma patients   the drug during the test , 40 percentage of whom remained alive three years later .

The inquiry , which will be presented at theAmerican Society of Clinical Oncology ’s annual group discussion , has been encounter with a great deal of excitement , and represents something of a discovery in the search for a cure for melanoma . For instance , the average survival prison term for patients who receive pembrolizumab was 23.8 calendar month – substantially longer than sufferers were antecedently expected to survive .

Daniel Hayes , the chair - elect of the American Society of Clinical Oncology , state theBBCthat melanoma “ has been a bad disease , it ’s hard to handle , it ’s a sneaky disease and the mortality rate have been tremendous so to see 40 percent   of patients animated at three years is really a step forward . ”

“ We ’re even inquire if we could use the word cure here , but it ’s going to take longer follow up , ” he added .