A team of Israeli and German scientists say they have discovered how to stop melanoma from spreading.

The research group from Tel Aviv University and the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg now understand how the aggressive form of skin cancer metastasizes and have identified two drugs that may stop it from doing so.

“Our study is an important step on the road to a full remedy for the deadliest skin cancer,” said Dr Carmit Levy from Tel Aviv University. “We hope that our findings will help turn melanoma into a nonthreatening, easily curable disease.”

Melanoma starts in the melanocytes – the skin cells that produce pigment – and so usually appears as a dark mole, although they can be white or skin-coloured. However, it is once the melanoma spreads from the skin to the blood vessels that it can prove fatal.

“The threat of melanoma is not in the initial tumour that appears on the skin, but rather in its metastasis – cancer cells sent off to colonise vital organs like the brain, lungs, liver and bones,” said Levy.

If caught early, the mole can simply be removed, but once it has begun to spread the procedure is more complicated and usually involves chemotherapy or radiation.

The research team say that have identified two chemicals that can inhibit the spreading process, one stops the cancer spreading from the tumour to the skin, and the other blocks the skin from undergoing changes to receive the cancer cells.

The results of the team’s research was published on Sunday in the journal Nature Cell Biology.