A pill for advanced skin cancer that targets patients with particular genetic make-up has had dramatic results, scientists have revealed.

In 80 per cent of those treated, tumours were significantly reduced in size.

The patients were suffering from malignant melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, which had started to spread.

Most had mutations in the BRAF gene which occur in 40 per cent to 60 per cent of patients with the disease.

The drug, PLX4032, inhibits faulty BRAF and prevents it stimulating the cancer.

Lead researcher Dr Paul Chapman, from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, said: "We have seen many tumours shrink rapidly, and in some patients, quality of life improved dramatically. This is the beginning of personalised medicine in melanoma."