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Melanoma

The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA

Correspondence: Jeffrey E. Gershenwald, M.D., Dept. of Surgical Oncology, Box 444, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. Telephone: 713-792-6936; FAX: 713-745-4926; e-mail: jgershen{at}mdanderson.org

The presentations at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2001 meeting reported or updated the results of phase I, II, and III randomized trials and also reported important meta-analyses and retrospective studies impacting on the management of patients with melanoma. In the treatment of early stage melanoma, the prognostic significance of pathologic status of sentinel lymph nodes was affirmed. With respect to regional nodal involvement (American Joint Committee on Cancer [AJCC] stage III), investigators presented the interim results of the United Kingdom randomized low-dose interferon (IFN) trial, and up-to-date meta-analyses of several IFN trials including a pooled analysis of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group trials evaluating interferon in the adjuvant setting. In the advanced disease setting (AJCC stage IV), several studies elucidated the pros and cons of biochemotherapy in patients with metastatic melanoma, with an emphasis on seeking to improve response in the central nervous system and durability of response in general. Thought provoking was new data regarding the potential for lovastatin to act as a chemopreventive agent for melanoma. Translational studies were presented, one supporting the importance of HLA-typing in developing targeted vaccine therapy. Finally, the results of a novel experimental melanoma vaccine were presented using autologous tumor-derived heat-shock protein peptide complex-96 (HSPPC-96).

Key Words. Melanoma • Metastasis • Interferon • Sentinel node biopsy • Biochemotherapy • Chemoprevention • Vaccine