Treatments are available for all people with melanoma. After you receive a diagnosis of melanoma, your oncologist will suggest a course of action based on the location, type and stage of disease, your age, and your general health.

Four kinds of treatment are used:

• Surgery is the standard treatment for melanoma in situ, Stage I, Stage II, and Stage III melanomas and may be considered for isolated Stage IV disease. It involves the removal of the tumor and a surrounding area of normal-appearing skin. The goal of surgery in early-stage melanoma is to remove the tumor completely, before it has a chance to spread.

  Surgery for patients with later-stage disease may involve the removal of cancerous tumors or lymph nodes that have spread to other areas of the body. Following surgery, adjuvant therapy may be used to treat later-stage disease and high-risk melanoma. Adjuvant treatments include chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, or a combination of these treatments. The optimal performance of surgery enables adjuvant treatments to work more effectively.

  See Surgery for more information.

• Chemotherapy is the use of anticancer drugs, given orally or by injection, which travel through the bloodstream to kill cancer cells. It is an adjuvant treatment sometimes used for Stage IV disease and recurrent melanoma, and for lower stages if surgery cannot be performed. Chemotherapy drugs for the treatment of melanoma may be administered singly or in combination, or in conjunction with immunotherapy, drugs that act on the immune system.

  See Chemotherapy for more information.

• Radiation therapy uses forms of energy, including x-rays, to kill cancer cells. It is generally reserved for advanced cases where surgery is not possible or may be complicated. Radiation is used to relieve symptoms of melanoma that has metastasized to areas such as the brain or bone. Radiation may also be targeted to the regional lymph node basin to prevent tumor recurrence after surgery. Experimentally, radiation can be carried to various sites in the body using immunological agents, such as monoclonal antibodies.

  See Radiation Therapy for more information.

• Biological therapy, or biotherapy, is the use of natural and manufactured substances derived from the body in order to fight cancer.
  • Immunotherapy, the main focus of biological therapy, works to boost or restore the body's immune system so it can better recognize and fight a number of diseases, including melanoma. It is most commonly used as adjuvant therapy following surgery to remove primary melanomas, but is also used to treat advanced and recurrent melanoma.
  • Anti-angiogenesis therapy works to prevent or alter the growth of new blood vessels that feed malignant tumors, including melanomas.
  • Gene therapy is the introduction of new genetic material to damaged genes or cancer cells. The goal of gene therapy is to replace damaged cells with healthy ones, or to make cancer cells more sensitive to the effects of immunotherapy and chemotherapy.
  • Hormonal therapy adds, blocks, or removes hormones from the body to slow or stop the growth of certain cancers. The use of tamoxifen (a hormonal therapy drug most often used to treat breast cancer) as part of a combination chemotherapy regimen has not been found to be useful in the treatment of melanoma.

  See Biological Therapy for more information.

See also If Melanoma Recurs.

Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are research studies that evaluate new therapies and improve cancer care. These studies are responsible for most of the advances in cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. If you have melanoma, you may be eligible to participate in a clinical trial.

See Clinical Trials for more information about how clinical trials work and about current clinical trials for melanoma.