New treatment can make tumours vanish from terminally ill patients, scientists say

A “GAME-changing” new drug can wipe out tumours in terminally ill cancer patients.

One in ten kidney cancer sufferers saw their tumour growth vanish.

Scientists now reckon the injection, an alternative to ­gruelling chemotherapy, could give hundreds of people years more life and cure cases once thought of as no-hopers.

The treatment combines existing cancer drugs Ipilimumab and Nivolumab.

They make up a new class of drugs called immunotherapies.

Both stimulate the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells.

In trials, tumours shrank in four in ten patients with incurable kidney cancer.

Some 85 per cent survived a year against 37 per cent for those on standard treatments.

“We could be talking about curing cases that a few years ago would have had no hope.

“This new class of drugs is a real game-changer.

“They are going to replace chemotherapy for many cancers.”

The findings will be presented today at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Denmark.