Skin Cancer & Melanoma

The treatment of advanced cutaneous melanoma remains disappointing. Single-agent cytotoxic drugs usually produce response rates of less than 20%, though newer agents, particularly fotemustine and temozolomide, show some promise, especially in patients with brain metastases.

Anderson and colleagues present a comprehensive and factually accurate overview of systemic treatment for advanced melanoma. They correctly identify dacarbazine as the only single agent officially sanctioned for the treatment of metastatic melanoma. They further opine that "dacarbazine alone remains the standard of care for initial chemotherapy treatment of metastatic melanoma." With overall response rates of 10% to 20%, a complete response rate of less than 4%, and no evidence that treatment with dacarbazine improves survival over best palliative care, one questions whether or not dacarbazine would merit approval if reevaluated today.

Researchers at the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Saint John's Hospital in Los Angeles are studying a new blood test that

NEW YORK--Sunscreens represent the first line of defense against skin damage from the sun, and broad-spectrum products offer the best protection, Madhukar A. Pathak, MB, PhD, said at a media conference sponsored by the Skin Cancer Foundation.

NEW YORK--If the face is the area of the body most vulnerable to sun damage, the eyes are in need of special protection, Rene S. Rodriguez-Sains, MD, said at a media conference sponsored by the Skin Cancer Foundation. Malignancies of the eyes and periocular area are particularly serious because of their proximity to the brain and other vital structures, he said.

NEW YORK--A mollusk protein turned out to be the best carrier for a cancer vaccine being developed by Philip O. Livingston, MD, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. This approach to augmenting the immunogenicity of the GM2 ganglioside tumor antigen is about to be tested in phase III randomized trials of melanoma patients who are free of detectable disease after surgery but are at high risk for recurrence.

LISBON, Portugal--Adjuvant immunotherapy with low-dose interferon (IFN)-alfa-2a (Roferon-A) boosts disease-free survival by a significant 40% in melanoma patients with regional lymph node metastasis, according to the findings of the latest multicenter World Health Organization (WHO) Melanoma Programme trial.