Systemic therapy of metastized melanoma

摘要

abstract_textpFor the first time in three decades new drugs will be approved for systemic treatment of metastatic melanoma in the near future and management will change by early access programs by the beginning of 2011. Treatment of melanoma in the stage of distant metastases however still aims at palliative treatment for most patients and tries to achieve durable tumor remissions with prolongation of survival. However, a cure only seems achievable in a small percentage of patients. As long as metastasis is confined to one organ system and is surgically removable, surgery remains the treatment of first choice. More extensive metastases should be treated systemically. New therapeutic concepts aim at the blockade of CTLA-4 with antibodies and to achieved long lasting tumor remission in some patients and has led to a statistically significant prolongation of the median overall survival. The usage of highly selective tyrosine kinase inhibitors in phase II studies in BRAF V600E mutated metastatic melanoma patients (about 40-50 of all melanoma patients) induced tumor remissions in about 80 which demonstrates the imperative for an individualized anti-tumor treatment in the future./p/abstract_text