[Experiences with therapy of stage IV metastatic malignant melanoma with "Legha Protocol" polychemoimmunotherapy].
OBJECTIVE
Metastatic malignant melanoma (stage IV) is one of the most aggressive tumors. At the moment there is no safe therapy. Therefore the report of Legha et al., who achieved a rate of almost 10% of long-lasting complete remissions with a polychemoimmunotherapy using interleukin-2 and interferon-alpha in combination with cisplatin, vinblastine and dacarbazine, is a promising one. Because of these promising trends, we decided to treat our own patients with this therapy to examine the results, the side effects and the practicability on normal dermatological wards.


METHODS
From 1997 to 2000 we treated 28 patients with metastatic malignant melanoma with the polychemoimmunotherapy according to Legha's protocol.


RESULTS
We achieved three complete (11.1%) and seven partial (25.9%) remissions (altogether 37%). Two of these patients are living relapse-free at the moment (7.4%). Three patients (11.1%) showed a stabilization of their disease, five patients (18.5%) had a mixed response and nine patients (33.3%) suffered progressive disease.


CONCLUSIONS
The rate of complete and partial remissions was lower than those reported by Legha et al., however the rate of long-lasting complete remissions was almost identical. The follow-up time is still ongoing, so we have to limit our results to this period. We want to emphasize the practicability of this kind of therapy on normal dermatological wards in spite of the relatively high toxicity.
Klinik und Poliklinik für Dermatologie, Venerologie und Allergologie, Universitätsklinikum Mainz.
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Fischer
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Knop
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Enk
D000328:Adult; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000009:adverse effects; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000628:therapy*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D016898:Interferon-alpha; D007376:Interleukin-2