And now for some good news...

NBC4TV in Washington D.C. is reporting that there is a new experimental treatment that can offer hope to patients with advanced cases of melanoma. The process uses immunology to increase the number of cancer-fighting cells in the patient's body. It's currently only being offered to critical melanoma patients who have not responded to other treatments.

In two small studies, about half of the people who had this experimental treatment saw their tumors shrink or disappear. "We identify within those cancers, the immune cells, lymphocytes, that are fighting the cancer but ineffectively. We've developed techniques for taking them out of the body, growing them in a laboratory, educating them to fight the cancer, then giving them back," Rosenberg said ( Dr. Steven Rosenberg).
Right now, this treatment is only being used on patients with advanced cases of melanoma who have not responded to other treatments. Scientists are constantly modifying it as they learn more about it.