The treatment of melanoma with an emphasis on immunotherapeutic strategies.
Melanoma continues to be one of the most difficult to treat of all solid tumors. Many new advances have been made in the surgical management of melanoma, including new guidelines for margins of excision, as well as sentinel node biopsy for the diagnosis of lymph node micrometastases. The search continues for an effective adjuvant melanoma treatment that can prevent local and distant recurrences. Melanoma is one of the most immunogenic of all tumors, and several clinical trials testing the immunotherapy of melanoma have been conducted, including trials in interferon, interleukin-2, and melanoma vaccines. Here we discuss many of the recent clinical trials in the surgical management of melanoma, in addition to the advances that have been made in the field of immunotherapy. A new second-generation melanoma vaccine, DC-MelVac (patent # 11221/5), has recently been granted FDA approval for Phase I clinical trials and will be introduced in this review.
Jack
Angela
A
Surgery Research Laboratory, Department of Surgery, Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Centers/New York Medical College, 153 West 11th Street, Cronin Building, Room 667, New York, NY 10011, USA.
Boyes
Christopher
C
Aydin
Nebil
N
Alam
Khorshed
K
Wallack
Marc
M
D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000276:immunology; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000276:immunology; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008545:Melanoma / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy*; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy
D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D007376:Interleukin-2