For several years, Bobby Harsh had strived to stay one step ahead of melanoma, as the aggressive form of skin cancer moved from a lesion on his left cheek in late 2007 to later gaining a foothold in his lungs.

 

  The 40-year-old Maryland state trooper had extensive surgery, involving some 90 stitches that traced a horseshoe shape on the left side of his face. The melanoma, 4 millimeters in depth, was classified as stage 2C. Despite no indication that it had reached his lymph nodes, Harsh adopted an aggressive approach, enrolling in a clinical trial testing a vaccine treatment.

 

   But in early 2009, shortly after the trial wrapped up, imaging scans showed evidence of metastasis: lesions on his lungs. By spring, they had doubled in size. Another research study was his only option. “The stuff in my lungs was diffuse, so they couldn’t remove it,” Harsh says.

 

  While he waited to qualify—all medication had to leave his system first—he decided to go ahead with a long-planned trip, visiting the national parks in a recreational vehicle with his wife and three teenage children. “I guess I would say that I’m a realist,” he says, describing his mindset then. “We knew that the prognosis was very, very poor. At that point in time, you’re looking for miracle kind of things.”

 

  Harsh’s “miracle” arrived in the form of a drug called Yervoy (ipilimumab), a new intravenous agent that’s designed to harness the body’s immune system to better attack the cancer. He started treatments in September 2009. Fewer than three months later, the first set of scans showed evidence of the tumors’ shrinkage.