Scientists in Australia have discovered a new mesothelioma treatment that may offer the first hope for a cure to patients suffering from the disease. Researchers at the National Centre for Asbestos Related Diseases at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, Australia say that they are hopeful they will be able to start using the new treatment on humans within three to five years.

Mesothelioma is a deadly cancer caused by asbestos exposure that affects the lining of the lungs, heart or abdomen. Although it may take 30 to 50 years before patients who have been exposed to asbestos develop mesothelioma symptoms, the disease is almost always fatal. Many patients die within just one year after receiving a mesothelioma diagnosis.

In the new study, doctors injected an anti-cancer skin cream and a stimulant drug directly into the tumors of mice with mesothelioma. These injections caused their immune systems to produce “killer cells” that attacked cancerous cells. The scientists said that half of the mice with advanced mesothelioma were completely cured.

Because one of the two drugs is commercially available and the other is already in clinical trials, researchers believe that they will be able to begin using the treatment on humans after a shorter period of clinical trials. The new mesothelioma drug therapy is the closest that scientists have ever come to having a cure for mesothelioma.