Can surgery effectively treat metastatic melanoma?

For some patients (such as those with lymph nodes containing cancer), doctors may advise treatment with interferon after surgery (adjuvant therapy). Other drugs or perhaps vaccines may also be recommended as part of a clinical trial to try to lower the chance the melanoma will come back. read more

The first step in treatment is the removal of the melanoma, and the standard method of doing this is by surgical excision (cutting it out). Surgery has made great advances in the past decade, and much less tissue is removed than was customary in the past. read more

Treating recurrent melanoma. Treatment of melanoma that comes back after initial treatment depends on the stage of the original melanoma, what treatments a person has already had, where the melanoma comes back, and other factors. Melanoma might come back in the skin near the site of the original tumor, sometimes even in the scar from the surgery. read more

Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer. When discovered early, it can usually be cured with surgery alone, but once it spreads (metastasizes) throughout the body, treatment options are limited. 1 After decades of frustration for researchers, however, promising new therapies are providing hope, extending life by a year or two for many patients and in some cases virtually curing them. read more

Surgery for metastatic melanoma If melanoma has spread (metastasized) from the skin to other organs such as the lungs or brain, the cancer is very unlikely to be curable by surgery. Even when only 1 or 2 areas of spread are found by imaging tests such as CT or MRI scans, there are likely to be others that are too small to be found by these scans. read more

While rarely used to treat a primary melanoma tumor, radiation therapy can also sometimes be used after surgery to lower the chance of recurrence in a site where lymph nodes have been removed, especially if many nodes were cancerous. read more