The key to treating cancer could be the body's own immune system

Melanoma
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A new study in The New England Journal of Medicine, presented this weekend at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual conference in Chicago, found that two cancer drugs, when taken together, could shrink tumors in patients with advanced-stage melanoma.

In a trial of 945 worldwide patients, researchers found that combining ipilimumab and nivolumab, two drugs that work with the body's immune system, reduced the melanoma tumors of nearly 60 percent of patients. The combination, which spurred the immune system to fight cancer, also prevented melanoma from advancing for almost a year in more than half of the patients studied.

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Meghan DeMaria

Meghan DeMaria is a staff writer at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked for USA Today and Marie Claire.