Chemotherapy approaches to melanoma

Abstract

Melanoma, if detected early, is a curable malignancy. Unfortunately, however, many melanomas are detected at the stage that puts patients at a high risk of recurrence, if they are not already metastatic. New techniques are being developed to try to detect subclinical disease and allow for early intervention with adjuvant treatment. Because the incidence of melanoma is on the rise, there is a greater demand to improve the current therapy. Revision of the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system has enabled patients to be stratified better into risk groups, which in turn dictates treatment recommendations. As evidenced by the data provided, the current chemotherapeutic options for metastatic melanoma are far from optimal. Clearly, in this malignancy, enrollment into a clinical trial is an excellent option for patients. The development of novel approaches to treating this disease provide hope for better management and possible cure of a notoriously aggressive disease with a dismal prognosis.