Immunotherapy, which harnesses the body's immune system to attack cancerous cells, is proving so effective that in one British-led trial, more than half of patients with advanced melanoma saw tumours shrink or being brought under control, researchers said.
A number of trials of the drugs have been presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual conference in Chicago.
Professor Roy Herbst, chief of medical oncology at Yale Cancer Centre in the US, described some of the findings as "spectacular".
He said immunotherapy could replace chemotherapy as the standard treatment for cancer within the next five years, according to reports.
He told reporters: "I think we are seeing a paradigm shift in the way oncology is being treated.
"The potential for long-term survival, effective cure, is definitely there."
The news from the American Society of Clinical Oncology's 2015 annual conference is here
High cost combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab proving more effective against advanced melanoma
The combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab significantly increased progression-free survival (PFS) for patients with advanced melanoma compared with ipilimumab alone, according to a randomized, double-blind, phase III trial (Abstract LBA1). Nivolumab monotherapy also performed better than ipilimumab alone. Though this was a positive trial, a Discussant also noted the extreme high costs of these drugs, and others like them.
In patients with PD-L1 expression of at least 5%, the median PFS was similar among the combination (14.0 months) and nivolumab monotherapy (14.0 months) arms, whereas the PFS was 3.9 months in the ipilimumab monotherapy arm.
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