title: [Experimental treatment of malignant melanoma and its rationale].
abstract: To treat malignant melanoma successfully currently means to recognize the tumor at an early stage and to remove it immediately. Aside from individual cases, available treatment modalities are not able to increase survival, especially in the palliative situation. Thus innovative experimental approaches are urgently needed to strongly improve the palliative and adjuvant treatment of melanoma. Anti-tumor effects are expected from targeted therapies, which are directed against defined molecules decisive for tumor pathogenesis. Crucial points of attack are signaling pathways, angiogenesis and apoptosis resistance. New diagnostic and therapeutic developments have enhanced the efficacy of chemotherapies. Increasing insights into tumor immunology provide new treatment approaches of vaccination, cell transfer and especially of blocking immune tolerance mechanisms. It will be challenging for the future to identify and characterize more precisely those patients who might most benefit from a certain treatment approach.
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Dermatologie, Venerologie und Allergologie, Universitätsklinikum des Saarlandes, 66421, Homburg, Deutschland. knuth.rass@uks.eu
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rass
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Diefenbacher
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tilgen
mesh_terms: D019264:Adoptive Transfer; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000627:therapeutic use / Q000633:toxicity; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000235:genetics; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use* / Q000633:toxicity; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D060908:CTLA-4 Antigen; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use / Q000633:toxicity; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D015507:Drugs, Investigational / Q000627:therapeutic use* / Q000633:toxicity; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics; D011788:Quality of Life; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D015703:Antigens, CD; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D060908:CTLA-4 Antigen; C556706:CTLA4 protein, human; D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D015507:Drugs, Investigational