PROVIDENCE, RI (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- It’s the leading cause of death from skin disease. Last year alone, nearly nine thousand people died from melanoma. Traditional treatments are ineffective, giving most patients with advanced melanoma less than a year to live. Now, a new FDA approved drug is the first ever to improve survival.

Karen Anderson takes time to reflect on her life. Doctors gave her just six months to live after a biopsy from a lump on her neck revealed stage 4 melanoma.

“My surgeon said, 'you know, you have stage 4 melanoma,' and it was just kind of like wow,” Karen Anderson, told Ivanhoe,

The melanoma had spread to her lymph nodes, breasts, liver, and bones.

“After the initial shock of my diagnosis, it made me realize I want to do this different,” Karen said.

She’s already lost her father, sister and step-dad to other forms of cancer, but Karen’s determined to beat it. She enrolled in a clinical trial with the help of lead investigator, doctor Walter Urba.

“Ipilimumab for Karen was a godsend. It was incredibly important to her survival,” Walter Urba, M.D., Ph.D., a director of the Cancer Research Earle A. Chiles Research Institute at Providence Cancer Center, explained.

Ipilimumab or "Ippy" works by stimulating the patient’s own immune system to kill tumors. It’s the first FDA approved drug for melanoma in more than a decade.

“It allows t-cells to grow, multiply, produce molecules that go on and kill melanoma cells wherever they live throughout the body,” Dr. Urba said.

With Ippy , the median survival rate is improved by four months.

“Which may sound like a little unless you’re one of the individuals that’s affected by the disease,” Dr. Urba said.

Others though have gained years, like Karen…

“It gave me three years, almost three years, that I would not have had if I hadn’t been on it,” Karen said.

While Ippy has given Karen more precious time with her daughter, the melanoma has come back.

“This is going to be a long road for me, and it’s going to be like a marathon not a sprint,” Karen said.

A race she’s grateful to still be in. “Ippy” is marketed under the name Yervoy. It represents a new class of drug known as targeted t-cell therapy. It’s also being looked at to help treat prostate, breast, lymphoma and lung cancers.