A recent study by Bristol-Myers reveals hopeful news for Head and Neck Cancer patients.

In patients whose head and neck cancers had returned and worsened following chemotherapy, scientists reported that the immunotherapy drug nivolumab (brand name Opdivo) doubled chances of survival for at least a year and led to a 30% reduction in the risk of death. The disease can typically kill such patients less than six months after it recurs.

“No therapy has been shown to improve survival for this patient population,” said Maura Gillison, lead investigator of Ohio State University Cancer Cancer. “New treatment options are desperately needed, this is the first randomized clinical trial to clearly demonstrate improved overall survival.”

Dr. Gillison presented the data at the American Association of Cancer Research meeting in New Orleans. “The most important thing is the difference in the proportion of patients who survived to a year,” said Gillison in an interview.  “In a disease that was uniformly rapidly fatal, we’re seeing a subset of the population clearly benefiting.”

The data likely paves the way for approval for Opdivo to be used in head and neck treatment, which is currently approved to treat advanced melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer and kidney cancer.

Merck & Co’s rival drug, Keytruda, received a priority review for head and neck cancer from U.S. regulators and could be approved for that use by August.

Both drugs belong to a class called PD-1 inhibitors that block a mechanism that tumors use to avoid detection from the immune system.