A vaccine being tested in the UK has helped been shown to help some patients fully recover from melanoma, even in its advanced stages.
It attacks tumour cells, leaving healthy cells undamaged and carries agents that boost the body's response to skin cancer.
A study of 50 patients with advanced melanoma who had been given no more than nine months to live found that 16 per cent of them recovered completely with the vaccine. They have been disease-free for more than four years.
Another 28 per cent saw the size of their tumours more than halved.