"Two new drugs have been found to prolong the lives of people with advanced  melanoma httphealth.nytimes.comhealthguidesdiseasemelanomaoverview.htmlinlinenytclassifier representing what researchers say is notable progress against the deadly skin cancer httphealth.nytimes.comhealthguidesdiseaseskincanceroverview.htmlinlinenytclassifier after decades of futility. The drugs represent success in two new approaches to combating cancer httphealth.nytimes.comhealthguidesdiseasecanceroverview.htmlinlinenytclassifier one by attacking a specific genetic mutation that accelerates tumor httphealth.nytimes.comhealthguidesdiseasetumoroverview.htmlinlinenytclassifier growth the other by unleashing the bodys immune system to fight the disease This is an unprecedented time of celebration for our patients Dr. Lynn M. Schuchter a melanoma specialist at the University of Pennsylvania told reporters Sunday in Chicago at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology where the results were presented. The drugs do not cure melanoma except perhaps in rare cases. But experts said they might add two to several months to the expected lifespans of people with advanced melanoma. Right now people with metastatic melanoma  meaning it has spread to distant organs  typically live  to  months. In one trial  percent of patients taking the experimental drug vemurafenib pronounced vemyooRAFenib were still alive after six months compared with  percent of those getting an older chemotherapy httptopics.nytimes.comtopnewshealthdiseasesconditionsandhealthtopicschemotherapyindex.htmlinlinenytclassifier drug dacarbazine. Using another statistical measure the risk of dying was reduced  percent. The effect was so marked that the trial was stopped early for ethical reasons so that patients in the control group could be offered the new drug. Because of that researchers do not yet know the median survival. You dont need to wait for  percent of  patients to die to conclude that one drug is much better than the other said Dr. Antoni Ribas of the University of California Los Angeles who was an investigator in the trial and has been a consultant to the developer of the drug. The other new drug ipilimumab pronounced ipeeLIMyoomab when combined with dacarbazine extended median survival to . months compared with . months for those who received dacarbazine alone. After three years . percent of those who got that new drug were alive compared with . percent of those in the control group. The results of both trials were published online by The New England Journal of Medicine http in addition to being presented here. To be sure more than half of patients with metastatic melanoma would not be helped all that much by either drug. Experts say more needs to be done especially since melanoma affects more young adults than many other types of cancer. Even if the new drugs allow patients with metastatic melanoma to live two years Two years is nothing when youre  said Dr. Anna C. Pavlick head of the melanoma program at New York University. Still doctors and patient groups welcomed the progress because until now treatment of melanoma that had spread beyond the skin to distant organs was terrible even by routine cancer standards said Dr. Vernon K. Sondak chairman of cutaneous oncology at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa Fla. Also the number of melanoma cases has been rising unlike for many other types of cancer. Doctors say that is because of unprotected sun exposure years ago the proliferation of tanning salons and perhaps more attention to detecting the disease. Photo  There were about  new cases of melanoma and about  deaths last year in the United States up from  cases and  deaths in  according to the American Cancer Society http Particularly fast increases have occurred among people older than  and among women  to  years old. Vemurafenib is the latest socalled targeted therapy which inhibits the effects of genetic mutations that spur tumor growth and spread. In particular the drug counters the effect of a mutation in a gene called BRAF that was discovered in  to be common in melanomas. The drugs name comes from VE mutation in RAF. The drug which is taken orally twice a day would be used only by the roughly half of melanoma patients whose tumors httphealth.nytimes.comhealthguidesdiseasetumoroverview.htmlinlinenytclassifier have this mutation. The drug significantly shrinks tumors in about half of these patients  or about a quarter of all melanoma patients. Get the best of Well with the latest on health fitness and nutrition delivered to your inbox every week. Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form It was developed by Roche and Plexxikon a biotechnology company in Berkeley Calif. that was recently acquired by Daiichi Sankyo of Japan. The drug is expected to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration within a few months. Ipilimumab the other new drug releases a brake on the bodys immune system allowing it to more effectively attack the tumor. Developed by BristolMyers Squibb httptopics.nytimes.comtopnewsbusinesscompaniesbristol_myers_squibb_companyindex.htmlinlinenytorg it was approved in March and is sold under the name Yervoy. A series of articles in The New York Times last year httptopics.nytimes.comtopnewshealthseriestarget_cancerindex.html followed the development of vemurafenib then known as PLX and recounted how some patients close to death seemed to make miraculous recoveries. The effect however typically lasts only about seven months before the cancer starts to grow again though some patients benefit for more than two years. S. Taylor Chance a yearold real estate agent in Rancho Cucamonga Calif. has been taking vemurafenib in a clinical trial since March . If it werent for the trial I wouldnt be here she said. It has not been all good. Ms. Chance said the drug caused such extreme pain at one point that I called in the children and said Im done I cant do this any more.  But she had her dose reduced and took other medications for the pain. In the trial sponsored by Roche and led by Dr. Paul B. Chapman of the Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center in New York  percent of participants had to stop taking the drug or lower the dose because of side effects including rash and joint pain httphealth.nytimes.comhealthguidessymptomsjointpainoverview.htmlinlinenytclassifier. Many patients get minor skin cancers that can be removed by dermatologists. The trial of ipilimumab paid for by BristolMyers involved  patients with latestage melanoma. Last year at this conference researchers presented results of a trial showing a survival advantage for patients who had undergone a previous treatment. The new trial of this drug by contrast involved patients who were getting treated for the first time. While the extension of median survival of two months from about  months to about  months was less than some experts expected researchers said the real benefit was that a small number of patients perhaps  to  percent could live a long time. Because it unleashes the immune system ipilimumab can have serious side effects. In the latest trial a big one was liver damage. A course of treatment of ipilimumab costs . The price of vemurafenib has not been announced but is expected to be at least tens of thousands of dollars per year. Doctors are eager to try the two drugs together. Roche and BristolMyers said Thursday that they would conduct such tests."