Stage four melanoma, although the most life threatening, offers the most treatment options. Whereas, stage 1 and 2 are cured by simple outpatient surgery, and stage 3 is watched similarly, stage four treatments are being studied in many clinical trials.

Chemotherapy and Biological Therapies
Although chemotherapy sometimes produces dramatic regression of disseminated melanoma, it only rarely results in long-term survival. Indeed, in a recent review of chemotherapy for cancer in advanced stages, melanoma patients were classed with those who could expect only "minor response—no demonstrable prolongation of survival" from chemotherapy.

New therapies that stimulate the immune system to at­tack melanoma or that choke off the specialized blood vessels supplying metastases may offer effective therapy in the future. Such biological therapies — for example, anti-CTLA 4, vaccines and immunological hormones called cytokines — offer hope for melanoma treatment. It now seems that in a few patients, disease may actually melt away, after it has been treated with interleukin-2, but this is in less than 10% of patients with much associated toxicity.

There are many clinical trials to explore and our hotline can help match you to a treatment trial if that is what you choose to do.

Modified: 1/08
Source: Melanoma, Prevention, Detection and Treatment: New Haven: Yale University Press. 2005.

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