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Jerry Jones just revealed he was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma over a decade and a half ago ... but he beat it with the help of an experimental drug.

The Cowboys owner opened up on the medical issue with The Dallas Morning News this week ... explaining to the paper that doctors first told him he had cancer back in June 2010. Getty

Jones told the outlet he immediately turned to the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for treatment ... and a short time later, he began PD-1 therapy to get healthy.

The remedy -- known as Programmed Cell Death Protein 1 -- is said to help immune systems better rid the body of cancer cells by blocking a specific protein. Jones insisted it saved his life.

"I went into trials for that PD-1," he said, "and it has been one of the great medicin

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