Straightforward trustworthy advice for malignant melanoma patients and carers
Frequently Asked Questions: What established treatments are there for Melanoma?
If you have a stage 1 or even stage 2 melanoma, surgery has a good chance of curing you. If that doesn't work, and/or you go to stage 3 or 4, there are no good treatments.
Interferon is favoured in America, and some other places as a treatment in addition to surgery. It may improve short term survival chances, but not long term. It can be a very harsh treatment, and many people fail to complete the course for this reason.
Radiation is favoured by the Australians in addition to surgery. Any improvements in survival rates are slight enough that the UK and US authorities cannot see them, and of course, radiotherapy is no picnic.
Dacarbazine was the only chemotherapy agent approved for use on melanoma by the US FDA before the newer and more effective ipiplimuab and vemurafenib came along. Dacarbazine wasn't terribly effective, giving tumour shrinkage in about 15% of patients, and making no difference to survival times, but ipilimimab has been proven to actually extend life.