Advances in the non-surgical treatment of melanoma

Immune responses appear to play a role in the natural history of melanoma and immunotherapy has therefore been the subject of a number of studies. The results of several large randomised studies using allogeneic melanoma vaccines have shown minimal benefit and Phase I/II studies with gene transfected melanoma cells do not appear particularly encouraging. The majority of current interest now centres on development of vaccines using defined melanoma antigens recognised by T-cells and given as dendritic vaccines or injected directly as melanoma peptides or DNA. It can be expected that the most effective antigens and method of administration will become apparent over the next few years. It is clear, however, that melanoma shows low response rates to immunotherapy, as for chemotherapy. Both forms of therapy appear to kill melanoma by induction of apoptosis, so it is possible that resistance to apoptosis may underlie the low responses to these forms of therapy. Much is already known about agents that may sensitise melanoma to apoptosis and combining these with chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy provides a promising new approach in treatment of melanoma.