Immunotherapy of melanoma

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Immunology
• Medical Research

Background:

• Malignant melanoma is often resistant to conventional treatments like radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
• The disease exhibits clinical signs of host defense, suggesting an immunological component.
• Immunotherapy has been explored across various stages of melanoma treatment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the application and efficacy of immunotherapy in different phases of malignant melanoma.
• To identify areas for future research in melanoma immunotherapy.

Main Methods:

• Review of immunotherapy applications in local recurrence, adjuvant settings post-surgery, and combination therapy for disseminated disease.
• Analysis of clinical and laboratory evidence supporting immunologically mediated regression.
• Identification of ongoing research needs and potential therapeutic strategies.

Main Results:

• Intralesional immunotherapy demonstrated significant regression in injected lesions (60%) and some regression in uninjected lesions (15%).
• Adjuvant immunotherapy post-surgery shows controversial benefits, with modest effects unlikely to increase cure rates.
• Combination immunotherapy with chemotherapy resulted in a slight increase in complete response rates but only marginally improved survival.

Conclusions:

• Immunotherapy has shown efficacy in specific settings, particularly intralesional treatment for local recurrence.
• Further research is crucial for active specific immunotherapy, combination therapies, and understanding immune response augmentation.
• Exploring immunotherapy's role in primary melanoma and its combination with novel radiotherapy techniques requires further investigation.