Recent aspects of medical care of malignant melanoma

Abstract

Recent developments in the epidemiology, diagnosis and therapy of malignant melanoma are reviewed, with particular attention paid to established standards of care. When melanoma metastases are inoperable, they respond poorly to the various chemotherapy strategies, so that additional improvements are critically needed. Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 antibodies, multikinase inhibitors, anti-apoptotic strategies and several other approaches are in progress in Phase III trials both as monotherapy as well as in combination with standard chemotherapy.