A new immune drug beats chemotherapy in extending the lives of lung cancer patients, a new study finds.

Twice as many patients with advanced squamous non-small cell lung cancer treated with the immunology drug Opdivo were alive at 18 months compared to those treated with the chemotherapy docetaxel, researchers found.

The average overall survival rate was 9.2 months with the immunotherapy drug compared to six months for patients who were given chemotherapy, researchers from the City of Hope National Medical Center reported at the World Conference on Lung Cancer.

Squamous non-small cell lung cancer is particularly lethal and patients have few options once their cancer spreads.

This type of cancer accounts for almost 20 percent of lung cancers.

Patients taking the immunotherapy drug also had fewer side effects than those treated with chemotherapy, and there were no treatment-related deaths reported, compared to two percent of those treated with the chemotherapy drug, the study showed.

A second study presented at the conference also showed similar favorable results for immunotherapy to fight lung cancer.