Health officials have been struggling to find a cure for a cancer that has spread to the lungs, liver, kidneys and pancreas.
Now, they say a new treatment may be a solution.
A study published Thursday in the journal Nature Communications suggests it could make tumors less invasive.
Researchers from the National Cancer Institute and the University of Pittsburgh analyzed the effects of a treatment called pembrolizumab on patients with lung, pancreases, kidney and bladder cancers and found it did not cause them to stop working.
Instead, the treatment made the cancers more likely to survive.
The researchers say this could be a first for a drug that targets the tumor in the same way cancer drugs do.
The study was led by researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.