[Adjuvant interferon treatment of melanoma]

Interferon is a pleiotropic antitumor biological agent that elicits its effect in a dose-dependent manner. Interferon has been tested in high, medium, and low doses; controlled studies, however, indicated that only high-dose therapy markedly prolonged the survival rate. Due to its high toxicity, the high-dose treatment modality has not been widely accepted. At present, neither the optimal dose, nor the duration of interferon adjuvant therapy are established. Furthermore, parameters that could predict responders to treatment are not yet identified. Before careful evaluation of the large-scale, controlled, multi-centric studies, the authors recommend strategy that combines intermediate and high-dose therapy for adjuvant treatment of patients with melanoma.