Since May is Melanoma Awareness Month, we’re devoting each of our blogs this month to educating our readers about one of the most deadly cancers: melanoma. In the last of our four-part blog series, we’ll tell you about the latest melanoma treatments.
Researchers agree that the best ways to beat melanoma is early detection. That’s why it’s so very important to have yearly screenings with your dermatologist. With regular screening he/she can often spot suspicious lesions before they become a deadly problem. In fact, early-stage melanomas can often be cured with surgery, while the more advanced melanomas – the ones that have spread to lymph nodes and other organs of the body – are more difficult to treat, and can result in death.
However, we have seen a number of newer treatments in recent years that have shown a great deal of promise in treating more advanced stage melanoma – namely, immunotherapy and targeted therapies.
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy helps your body’s immune system attack melanoma cells more effectively.
Some forms of immune therapy are already being used to treat melanomas with excellent results, including three checkpoint inhibitors (ipilimumab, pembrolizumab, nivolumab), an oncolytic virus (T-VEC), and three cytokine therapies (aldesleukin, interferon alfa-2b, and peginterferon Alfa-2b).
Researchers are now looking for ways to make these drugs work even better. One way is by combining them with other treatments, such as other types of immunotherapy or targeted drugs.
These researchers are also studying to see if these same drugs can be helpful for earlier-stage melanomas. For instance, if they might be useful before or after surgery to help lower the chance of cancer reoccurrence.
Melanoma vaccines are also being studied in clinical trials. In much the same way vaccines for diseases like polio and measles use a weakened virus to stimulate the body’s immune system to destroy the full-blown virus, the melanoma vaccine uses killed melanoma cells or parts of cells (antigens) as a vaccine to destroy other melanoma cells in the body. But unlike vaccines that are meant to prevent a disease, these vaccines are meant to treat an existing disease, melanoma
Other immunotherapies currently being studied include treating patients with high doses of chemotherapy and radiation therapy and then giving them tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), which are immune system cells taken from tumors. The purpose of this is to see if the therapy can shrink melanoma tumors and possibly prolong life as well.
Additionally, many studies are now looking to combine different types of immunotherapy, which may be more effective than any single treatment for advanced melanoma.
Targeted Drugs
As their name suggests, targeted therapy drugs hone in on the parts of the melanoma cells that make them different from normal cells. These drugs work differently from standard chemotherapy drugs, and may work in some cases when chemotherapy doesn’t. They may also have less severe side effects.
As with Immunotherapy, researchers are currently looking at whether targeted therapy drugs might be helpful before or after surgery for some earlier stage melanomas.
Researchers are also looking at combining some of these targeted drugs with other types of treatments, such as chemotherapy or immunotherapy.
If you have a suspicious mole or lesion that you would like to have checked out, click here to schedule an appointment with Dermatology Associates. Remember, the earlier a melanoma is diagnosed, the better your chances for recovery.\
Dermatology Associates offers a full spectrum of leading edge medical, surgical, and cosmetic dermatology services from offices in Savannah and Vidalia.
