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The first step in the treatment of melanoma is prevention. The best way to prevent melanoma is to avoid sunburn and sun exposure in both children and adults. Just getting one bad blistering sunburn during childhood raises the risk of developing melanoma.
Minimizing long-term damage to the skin and its cells and the development of melanoma includes avoiding sun exposure during the period of time when the sun's rays are strongest this is generally between 9 am and 3 or 4 pm. Wearing protective clothing, such as wide-brimmed hats, sunglasses, and long sleeves and long pants is also important. During sun exposure, it is key to consistently use and reapply sunscreen with a high SPF. Do not use tanning beds.
Once melanoma has developed, treatment is tailored around a variety of factors, including the individual case, the type of melanoma and how much the melanoma has grown and spread.
Treatment involves complete surgical removal of the cancerous tumor by removing all of the cancerous mole or area of skin. Local lymph nodes are tested for the presence of cancer cells, indicating that the melanoma has spread. Additional surgery, chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy may be needed if melanoma has spread beyond the skin to the lymph nodes and other parts of the body.
The list of treatments mentioned in various sources for Melanoma includes the following list. Always seek professional medical advice about any treatment or change in treatment plans.
Alternative treatments or home remedies that have been listed as possibly helpful for Melanoma may include:
The first step in getting correct treatment is to get a correct diagnosis. Differential diagnosis list for Melanoma may include:
Hidden causes of Melanoma may be incorrectly diagnosed:
Products, offers and promotion categories available for Melanoma:
Possibly curable types of Melanoma may include:
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Note:You must always seek professional medical advice about any prescription drug, OTC drug, medication, treatment or change in treatment plans.
Some of the different medications used in the treatment of Melanoma include:
Unlabelled alternative drug treatments for Melanoma include:
The following are some of the latest treatments for Melanoma:
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If melanoma is found, the doctor needs to learn the extent, or stage , of the disease before planning treatment. The treatment plan takes into account the location and thickness of the tumor, how deeply the melanoma has invaded the skin, and whether melanoma cells have spread to nearby lymph nodes or other parts of the body. Removal of nearby lymph nodes for examination under a microscope is sometimes necessary. (Such surgery may be considered part of the treatment because removing cancerous lymph nodes may help control the disease.) (Source: excerpt from What You Need To Know About Melanoma: NCI)
The standard treatment for melanoma is surgery; in some cases, doctors may also use chemotherapy , biological therapy , or radiation therapy . The doctors may decide to use one treatment method or a combination of methods. (Source: excerpt from What You Need To Know About Melanoma: NCI)
Surgery to remove (excise) a melanoma is the standard treatment for this disease. It is necessary to remove not only the tumor but also some normal tissue around it in order to minimize the chance that any cancer will be left in the area.
The width and depth of surrounding skin that needs to be removed depends on the thickness of the melanoma and how deeply it has invaded the skin. In cases in which the melanoma is very thin, enough tissue is often removed during the biopsy, and no further surgery is necessary. If the melanoma was not completely removed during the biopsy, the doctor takes out the remaining tumor. In most cases, additional surgery is performed to remove normal-looking tissue around the tumor (called the margin) to make sure all melanoma cells are removed. This is necessary, even for thin melanomas. For thick melanomas, it may be necessary to do a wider excision to take out a larger margin of tissue.
If a large area of tissue is removed, a skin graft may be done at the same time. For this procedure, the doctor uses skin from another part of the body to replace the skin that was removed.
Lymph nodes near the tumor may be removed during surgery because cancer can spread through the lymphatic system. If the pathologist finds cancer cells in the lymph nodes, it may mean that the disease has spread to other parts of the body.
Surgery is generally not effective in controlling melanoma that is known to have spread to other parts of the body. In such cases, doctors may use other methods of treatment, such as chemotherapy, biological therapy, radiation therapy, or a combination of these methods. When therapy is given after surgery (primary therapy) to remove all cancerous tissue, the treatment is called adjuvant therapy . The goal of adjuvant therapy is to kill any undetected cancer cells that may remain in the body.
Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to kill cancer cells. It is generally a systemic therapy , meaning that it can affect cancer cells throughout the body. In chemotherapy, one or more anticancer drugs are given by mouth or by injection into a blood vessel (intravenous ). Either way, the drugs enter the bloodstream and travel through the body.
Chemotherapy is usually given in cycles: a treatment period followed by a recovery period, then another treatment period, and so on. Usually a patient has chemotherapy as an outpatient (at the hospital, at the doctor's office, or at home). However, depending on which drugs are given and the patient's general health, a short hospital stay may be needed.
One method of giving chemotherapy drugs currently under investigation is called limb perfusion . It is being tested for use when melanoma occurs only on an arm or leg. In limb perfusion the flow of blood to and from the limb is stopped for a while with a tourniquet. Anticancer drugs are then put into the blood of the limb. The patient receives high doses of drugs directly into the area where the melanoma occurred. Since most of the anticancer drugs remain in one limb, limb perfusion is not truly systemic therapy.
Biological therapy (also called immunotherapy) is a form of treatment that uses the body's immune system, either directly or indirectly, to fight cancer or to lessen side effects caused by some cancer treatments. Biological therapy is also a systemic therapy and involves the use of substances called biological response modifiers (BRMs). The body normally produces these substances in small amounts in response to infection and disease. Using modern laboratory techniques, scientists can produce BRMs in large amounts for use in cancer treatment. In some cases, biological therapy given after surgery can help prevent melanoma from recurring. For patients with metastatic melanoma or a high risk of recurrence, interferon-alfa and interleukin-2 (also called aldesleukin) may be recommended after surgery. Colony-stimulating factors and tumor vaccines are examples of other BRMs under study.
In some cases, radiation therapy (also called radiotherapy) is used to relieve some of the symptoms caused by melanoma. Radiation therapy is the use of high-energy rays to kill cancer cells. Radiation therapy is a local therapy ; it affects cells only in the treated area. Radiation therapy is most commonly used to help control melanoma that has spread to the brain, bones, and other parts of the body. (Source: excerpt from What You Need To Know About Melanoma: NCI)
16 MEDICAL BOOKS ONLINE! Review excerpts from medical books online, free, without registration, for more information about the treatments of Melanoma.
A patient with malignant melanoma requires surgical resection to remove the tumor. The extent of resection depends on the size and location of the primary lesion. Closure of a wide resection may require a skin graft. Surgical treatment may also include regional lymphadenectomy.
Deep primary lesions may merit adjuvant chemotherapy and biotherapy to eliminate or reduce the number of tumor cells. Clinical trials are currently under way to evaluate the effectiveness of isolated limb perfusion as chemotherapy for the management of malignant melanomas of extremities. Radiation therapy is usually reserved for metastatic disease. It doesn't prolong survival but may reduce tumor size and relieve pain.
Regardless of the treatment method, melanomas require close long-term follow-up to detect metastasis and recurrences. Statistics show that 13% of recurrences develop more than 5 years after primary surgery.
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
A patient with malignant melanoma requires surgical resection to remove the tumor. The extent of resection depends on the size and location of the primary lesion. Closure of a wide resection may require a skin graft. Surgical treatment may also include regional lymphadenectomy. Cutaneous melanoma is nearly 100% curable by excision if diagnosed when malignant cells are confined to the epidermis.
Deep primary lesions may merit adjuvant chemotherapy and biotherapy or immunotherapy to eliminate or reduce the number of tumor cells. Radiation therapy is usually reserved for metastatic disease; gene therapy may also be a treatment option.
Regardless of the treatment method, melanomas require close, long-term follow-up to detect metastasis and recurrences.
UNDER STUDY: Nerve fiber loss may provide an explanation for the invisible neurologic deficits experienced by many patients with MS. The axons decide the presence or absence of function. Loss of myelin doesn’t correlate with loss of function.
The prognosis varies. MS may progress rapidly,. It can disable the patient by early adulthood, and it also holds the potential to cause death within months of onset. However, 70% of patients lead active, productive lives with prolonged remissions.
Terms to describe MS forms include:
❑ relapsing-remitting — clear relapses (or acute attacks or exacerbations) with full recovery or partial recovery and lasting disability. Between the attacks, there’s no worsening of the disease. This type accounts for up to 90% of all cases.
❑ primary progressive — steady progression or worsening of the disease from the onset with minor recovery or plateaus. This form is uncommon and may involve different brain and spinal cord damage than other forms.
❑ secondary progressive — begins as a pattern of clear-cut relapses and recovery but becomes steadily progressive and worsens between acute attacks.
❑ progressive relapsing — steadily progressive from the onset but also has clear acute attacks. This form is rare.
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
Radiation therapy is used mainly in the early localized stage of the disease. Total nodal irradiation is usually effective for nodular and diffuse histologies.
Chemotherapy is most effective with multiple combinations of antineoplastics; remissions and cures may be induced in this manner. Some cases have required intrathecal chemotherapy. Bone marrow and stem cell transplants have also proved helpful.
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
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Copyright © 2010 Health Grades Inc. All rights reserved. Last Update: 9 February, 2010 (3:49)
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