[Malignant melanoma in the area of the head and neck]

Malignant melanoma is one of the most frequent malignancies of the skin. This is particularly true of malignant melanoma in juveniles. Its incidence has more than doubled from the 1970s to the mid-1990s. Presently, 15 new cases are recorded per 100,000 inhabitants a year in Germany. At Fachklinik Hornheide, a tumor center specializing in skin neoplasm with patients being referred from all over Germany, the number of melanoma patients treated per year has been approximately 500-550 for the past 10 years. In the present study, the state-of-the-art therapy for primary melanoma and treatment of the regional lymph node system is discussed. The radical treatment formerly advocated with wide tumor resection plus radical neck dissection is no longer justified for this immunogenic malignant tumor caused by endogenic as well as exogenic factors. "Sentinel lymph node" imaging by means of radioactive substances for diagnosing possible melanoma metastases in adjacent lymph nodes has changed the therapeutical concept. Tumor staging by means of ultrasound, CT, MRT, or PET allows the differentiation of tumors without distant metastases and a favorable prognosis, from melanomas which have to be considered as generalized disease. In addition to surgical resection of the tumor and neck dissection for removal of lymph nodes, adjuvant immunotherapy with interferon-alpha is capable of prolonging survival without a recurrence. Palliative chemotherapy or immunotherapy are valuable options for cases with generalized melanoma. Vaccination with a melanoma-associated antigen or dendritic cells is at an experimental stage and may become part of future treatment strategies.