The drug targets a specific protein that helps cancer cells survive.

The Melbourne-based trial took place over four years and tested 116 patients. It was shown by researchers at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre that the drug Venetoclax can greatly reduce cancer blood cells.

Positive results were seen in 79 percent of cases involving patients suffering from chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Some patients who had previously undergone treatment were left as good as new after agreeing to the new pill trials.

...

"This is a completely new class of drugs and there is no other drug or medicine previously available that has had the ability to inhibit this BCL-2 protein," he said, adding that the drug’s benefits also spread to other forms of cancer and leukemia than those tested.

Their results are published Thursday in the journal New England Journal of Medicine.

...

Roberts explained how the drug works, and it has to do with a specific protein called BCL-2, which helps cancer cells survive, making them simply “melt away.” It was first discovered in the 1980s, but scientists couldn’t find an inhibitor for it.

A couple of better articles: 

http://www.clinicaloncology.com/Hematologic-Malignancies/Article/01-16/Impressive-Results-for-Novel-Oral-BCL2-Inhibitor-in-CLL/34969

http://www.onclive.com/web-exclusives/fda-grants-venetoclax-breakthrough-designation-in-aml

800+ Reddit comments:

https://reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/438f06/cancer_cells_simply_melt_away_miracle_drug_amazes/

while I distrust RT implicitly, it did make me think of this:

Good one.

I distrust RT too but the Reddit comments and the better articles above tell me that there really is something to this research.