Adjuvant therapy of malignant melanoma Journal Article
| Authors: | Dickler, M. N.; Coit, D. G.; Meyers, M. L. |
| Article Title: | Adjuvant therapy of malignant melanoma |
| Abstract: | The incidence of malignant melanoma continues to rise steadily in the United States, with approximately 40,300 new cases expected in 1997. A significant number of patients with deep primary lesions or regional lymph node metastases are at high risk for developing recurrent, metastatic disease despite adequate surgical intervention. Therefore, approaches to adjuvant therapy including immunotherapy, such as interferon, levamisole, and vaccines and chemotherapy and chemoimmunotherapy have been investigated in high-risk patients. The key adjuvant trials are reviewed, with emphasis placed on randomized trials. High-dose interferon-α has recently been shown to modestly improve disease-free and overall survival in a prospective randomized trial of high-risk patients and has been approved by the FDA for this indication. Vaccines, which currently remain experimental, may prove to be equally effective but less toxic options for adjuvant therapy. Also, the identification of more high-risk patients who might benefit from adjuvant therapy may be facilitated by sentinel lymph node biopsy and the reverse- transcriptase polymerase chain reaction for tyrosinase. |
| Keywords: | cancer survival; disease-free survival; survival rate; review; cancer recurrence; cisplatin; patient selection; antineoplastic agents; drug approval; united states; united states food and drug administration; alpha interferon; chemotherapy, adjuvant; combined modality therapy; drug megadose; lymph node metastasis; lymphatic metastasis; prospective studies; polymerase chain reaction; alpha2b interferon; bcg vaccine; dacarbazine; interleukin 2; cancer immunotherapy; melanoma; quality of life; reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction; neoplasm recurrence, local; bone marrow suppression; incidence; risk factors; tyrosine; vinblastine; immunotherapy; gamma interferon; cancer vaccine; randomized controlled trials; antibody response; vaccination; vindesine; immunomodulation; flu like syndrome; monophenol monooxygenase; adjuvants, immunologic; lymph node biopsy; vaccines; intravenous drug administration; interferon-alpha; autologous bone marrow transplantation; intramuscular drug administration; levamisole; interferons; humans; human; male; female |
| Journal Title: | Surgical Oncology Clinics of North America |
| Volume: | 6 |
| Issue: | 4 |
| ISSN: | 1055-3207 |
| Publisher: | Elsevier Inc. |
| Date Published: | 1997-10-01 |
| Start Page: | 793 |
| End Page: | 812 |
| Language: | English |
| PUBMED: | 9309094 |
| PROVIDER: | scopus |
| DOI/URL: | |
| Notes: | Review -- Export Date: 17 March 2017 -- Source: Scopus |
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