Onkológia 6/2010

Adjuvant therapy in malignant melanoma

Despite massive improvement in the field of cytotoxic drugs and biologics malignant melanoma still represents a major issue. There is no consensus in dose and duration of the interferon treatment in adjuvant setting worldwide. For the efficacy of this treatment it is necessary to define „patient at the higher risk“ of recurrence. However, in this indication, neither cytototoxic drugs nor vaccines are successful. It has been shown that only interferon α has a statistical significant influence on relaps free survival, but effect on overall survival remains still unclear. The prognosis of the advanced disease is poor, because of minimal knowledge of biology this tumor, risk of the recurrence, as well as lack of effective drugs.

Keywords: malignant melanoma, risk factors, adjuvant treatment.