Patients with the deadliest form of skin cancer are being offered a new treatment in Saskatchewan that will be funded by the province.

The cancer agency is providing two new drugs for melanoma that has started to spread — Zelboraf and Yervoy — the first genetically-targeted medications for this condition.

"They're the first and only therapies that have had any positive impact on survival rates for patients," said Annette Cyr, the leader of the Melanoma Network of Canada, in Ontario.

Cyr, who is originally from Saskatoon, is a cancer patient with recurring metastatic melanoma. She says she hopes to begin treatment with Zelboraf soon. The drug can only be taken by patients with a genetic mutation known as BRAF V600.

Kathy Barnard is a melanoma survivor and spokesperson for the Save Your Skin Foundation. She credits the drug Yervoy for keeping her disease-free long after she was expected to die.

Bernard says in 2005 doctors gave her six months to live. Two years later she underwent treatment with Yervoy through a drug trial and says she still has "no evidence of the disease."

Saskatchewan is one of the first provinces in Canada to fund the drugs. Ontario and Manitoba are also providing the treatment.

The Saskatchewan Cancer Agency will not disclose how much the medication will cost, but officials said it could be a few million dollars a year for a couple of dozen patients.