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Melanoma Standard Melanoma Treatment
Surgery The standard treatment for most melanoma is surgery. The surgeon will probably remove some of the surrounding normal tissue as well -- the amount of tissue removed is determined by the size and depth of the melanoma. The surgeon carefully plans the excision to preserve or simplify the reconstruction of cosmetically critical areas. Eighty-five percent of melanomas are curable by surgical removal. However, if a melanoma is thicker than 1/6 inch or if the melanoma has spread to the lymph glands that drain that area, relapse is more likely than not. The risk of relapse increases in direct proportion to the depth of the tumor and presence of ulceration. A pathologist determines the degree of ulceration by examining melanoma tissue under a microscope. Melanoma that presents a high risk of relapse has probably spread to other areas of the body and cannot be eradicated by surgery alone. In such cases, the standard approach involves surgery plus systemic medical therapies to enhance the likelihood of cure.
Immunotherapy in Addition to Surgery One type of therapy that has recently been successful in treating advanced melanoma is immunotherapy. This type of therapy is based on the concept of controlling a tumor by strengthening the body's natural defenses against it. Immunotherapy for many types of cancer is in the investigational phase. But researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI), a UPMC Health System program, developed an immunotherapy for melanoma that undwerwent 15 years of testing across the United States and was approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA-approved treatment available at UPCI uses a drug called interferon alfa. At UPCI, interferon alfa is used as a standard treatment aimed at preventing melanoma relapse after surgery in patients with deep primary tumors or with cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes.
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