Story highlights Study: Two-drug combination stopped melanoma from advancing for nearly a year

Author of study hails treatment as "new era in treating cancer"

Experts caution that drug combination comes with side effects that may outweigh benefits

(CNN) Researchers meeting in Chicago are hailing what they believe may be a potent new weapon in the fight against cancer: the body's own immune system.

An international study found that a combination of two drugs that helped allow the immune system to fight the cancer -- ipilimumab and nivolumab -- stopped the deadly skin cancer melanoma from advancing for nearly a year in 58% of the cases.

Melanoma, though a skin cancer, can spread to the lungs, liver, bone, lymph nodes and brain. The study was designed and led by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Those involved in the fight against cancer are divided as to just how excited to get over the promise of immunotherapy in battling cancer.

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