The new treatment involves training the immune system to attack cancer
Tests on terminally ill patients have shown "extraordinary" results with up to 94 percent of them seeing their symptoms vanish completely.
The treatment will not offer a full cure, but researchers hope it will increase survival rates and eventually be adapted to tackle other cancers.
US scientists developed the new technique by removing immune cells and modifying them to target cancers before putting them back in the body.
In one study 94 per cent of participants - some expected to live just two months - saw all symptoms disappear.
Immunotherapy has finally made it to a pillar of cancer therapy
Tests on patients with different blood cancers saw response rates for some of more than 80 percent while for others over half of them had a complete remission.
Lead scientist Professor Stanley Riddell of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle said: "These are in patients that have failed everything. Most of the patients in our trial would be projected to have two to five months to live.
"This is extraordinary. This is unprecedented in medicine to be honest, to get response rates in this range in these very advanced patients."
The results have been described as 'extraordinary'
Prof Riddell presented his groundbreaking research to the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Washington DC.
The "potential paradigm shift" in cancer treatment involves removing immune cells called T-cells from patients, modifying them to become "receptor" molecules that target cancer, and putting them back in the body.
Scientists used genetically engineered mice to harvest the targeting molecules, known as Chimeric Antigen Receptors.
Once attached to the T-cells, the CARs cut the chances of the cancer being able to shield itself from the body's immune system.
Professor Riddell said it was not clear how long the symptom-free patients would remain in remission and more work had to be done before the technique could be widely used.
An amazing 94 per cent of patients had no symptoms
So far, the treatment has only been tried on patients with "liquid" blood cancers.
Scientists hope they will soon be able to test out the system on patients with solid tumours.
Although the human immune system can combat cancer it often fails in the task.
Cancer cells are either not recognised by the body's defences or they find ways to mask their identity.
In the most promising study, around 35 patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia were treated with CARs-modified T-cells.
Almost all - 94 percent - went into complete remission with their symptoms disappearing.
More than 40 patients with lymphoma have also been treated.
With this group the remission rate was more than 50 percent and while tests on those with non-Hodgkinson's lymphoma saw response rates of more than 80 percent.
Patients with Chronic Lymphocyte Leukaemia showed similar results.
Speaking at the AAAS annual meeting, Professor Riddell said: "We have a long way to go. "The response is not always durable, some of these patients do relapse. But the early data is unprecedented."
"Immunotherapy has finally made it to a pillar of cancer therapy. Much like chemotherapy and radiotherapy, it's not going to be a save-all, it's going to find its applications in certain sub-types of tumours in certain patients," he added.
A paper on the Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia research is currently under review ahead of publication.
Cancer cells are not normally recognised by the body's immune system
During the tests seven patients, were left in intensive care because of a serious side effect caused by an over-powerful immune response called cytokine release syndrom (sCRS). Two later died.
The research team are working on ways to reduce the risk of sCRS.
British experts have described the research results as "exciting."
Dr Kat Arney of Cancer Research UK, said: "Engineering a patient's own immune cells to fight cancer is an exciting prospect, and the results from this relatively small study are a tantalising demonstration that this could help treat some people with blood cancers like leukaemia or lymphoma.
"The treatment comes with a risk of potentially severe side effects, and doesn't yet work for all patients. So we still need more results from more trials - including those that Cancer Research UK is funding - to know for sure how well they work, and whether they can be used in other cancers too. But there's a lot of hope that this type of therapy could save lives in the future."