"For the first time patients with the deadliest form of skin cancer have two new treatment options that prolong survival according to new research presented at a cancer conference in Chicago on Sunday. One drug specifically targets a mutated gene that tells a cancer cell to grow the other boosts a patients immune system in the fight against the disease. Both drugs cause tumors to shrink and prolong survival for patients with melanoma that has spread to other parts of the body but neither is a cure. This is an unprecedented time of clinical options  it is truly practicechanging said Dr. Lynn Schuchter who heads the Melanoma Center at the University of Pennsylvania and is not involved with the research. MayoClinic Find out more about melanoma httpedition.cnn.comHEALTHlibrarymelanomaDS.html One study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncologys ASCO conference on Sunday focused on the experimental drug vemurafenib. About half of all melanoma patients have a mutated BRAF gene. This mutation tells the cell to continue to grow. Its like the onswitch is stuck said Dr. Paul Chapman from the Memorial SloanKettering Center in New York and lead author of the study. Vemurafenib blocks the mutated gene which kills the cancer cell and shrinks tumors. Researchers compared this new drug which comes in pill form to the only FDAapproved chemotherapy drug for melanoma dacarbazine It has been used to treat melanoma patients since  but is only effective in about  of patients. Nearly  benefited from this new targeted drug Schuchter said. In a large phase  study involving  people worldwide patients on vemurafenib did much better than those on chemotherapy. Fortyeight percent of patients on vemurafenib had substantial tumor shrinkage that lasted for more than a month compared to . of patients in the chemotherapy group. Those taking vemurafenib had a  reduced risk of death compared to those on chemo. Patients on vemurafenib saw the drug work within  hours and  of the patients were still alive after six months compared with  of patients getting dacarbazine. These are truly striking results ASCO president Dr. George Sledge said. Patient advocates like Tim Turnham executive director of the Melanoma Research Foundation are thrilled because the incidence of melanoma is going up all over the world and the treatment landscape has been terrible. Drugs that treat breast cancer found to prevent it too httpedition.cnn.comHEALTHbreast.cancerindex.htmlirefallsearch Sledge and other cancer experts are confident that based on these study results vemurafenib will almost certainly will get FDA approval this year. A second study showed that the recently approved drug Ipilimumab sold under the name Yervoy also extends survival for melanoma patients with advanced disease. It doesnt target a specific part of the cell. Instead it stimulates the patients immune system to allow it to better fight the cancer. Patients with and without the BRAF mutation were eligible to participate. Among  patients enrolled in this clinical trial half were given Yervoy plus dacarbazine and the other half were given a placebo and chemotherapy. Twentyone percent of the Yervoy population was alive after three years lead study author Dr. Jedd Wolchok said compared to  who got the placebo and chemo. Wolchok also an oncologist from the Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center said patients taking Yervoy saw the drug work for them for  months compared to only eight months in patients in the chemo group. Schuchter says melanoma patients are celebrating this moment because there are now two good treatment options for patients when there really were none before. Ive been doing this for  years and weve not had drugs that extended survival. That is what is so remarkable here Schuchter said. While patients taking vemurafenib do very well Schuchter said the drug stops working after about nine or  months. But in many cases that are nine or  months they otherwise would not have had. Yervoy takes a while to work and some patients may not have that time study author Chapman said. He also points out that both drugs do have side effects so patients have to be monitored. Doctors and researchers will now explore how to best use these drugs  give one before the other or simultaneously. Wolchok says manufacturers of both drugs Genentechs vemurafenib and BristolMyers Squibbs Yervoy which also funded these studies have agreed to work with researchers to study how these drugs are tolerated by patients when taken together giving doctors even more possible treatment options. This is very unusual in the world of drug development he said. According to the American Cancer Society melanoma is one of the most common cancers in young adults today. More than  people were diagnosed with melanoma last year and about  died. Not all melanomas can be prevented but limiting exposure to strong sunlight and other sources of UV light like tanning beds can significantly reduce the risk of getting this very deadly cancer."