While melanoma is one of the most dangerous forms of skin cancer, promising new treatment options are improving quality of life and increasing survival rates for patients with advanced Uveal Melanoma
Treating early melanoma (Uveal Melanoma Treatment)
Stage 0 “in situ” and stage I: Tumors discovered at an early stage are confined to the upper layers of the skin and have no evidence of spread. These melanomas are treated by excisional surgery. Stage I melanoma has invaded the second layer of skin (the dermis). In both stage 0 and stage I melanoma cases, the physician uses a scalpel to remove any remaining tumor plus a “safety margin” of surrounding normal tissue.
Surgeons may, under certain circumstances, recommend removal of melanoma by Mohs surgery. The procedure is done in stages over a few days to remove all of the cancer cells in layers while sparing healthy tissue and leaving the smallest possible scar. One layer at a time is removed and examined until the margins are cancer-free. New advances in this technique make it easier for the surgeon to spot melanoma cells in the margins.
The margin of normal skin removed depends on the thickness and location of the tumor. After surgery the margins are checked to make sure they are cancer-free. If the margins are cancer-free, no further surgery is necessary.
If a melanoma measures 0.8 mm or more in thickness or has other traits such as ulceration that make it more likely to spread to the lymph nodes, a sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) may be performed at the same time as the surgery to remove the primary tumor.
Treating intermediate, high-risk melanomas
Stage II: Since the risk of spreading to local lymph nodes is higher in stage II melanomas, a sentinel lymph node biopsy is often recommended in addition to surgery to remove the original tumor. If melanoma is found in the sentinel node, physician may examine the rest of the nodes in this lymphatic basin and remove any that contain cancer cells. After surgery, additional treatment may be recommended, including immunotherapy or radiation to decrease the chance that the melanoma will come back.
Treating advanced melanomas:
Stage III and stage IV: Advanced melanomas are those that have spread beyond the original tumor, most often reaching the lymph nodes and/or distant organs and becoming more difficult to treat. In recent years, new immunotherapies and targeted therapies have achieved positive results in many patients with stage III and stage IV melanoma. Patients with stage III melanoma now have options for supplemental or “adjuvant” treatment – medicines that enhance the effectiveness of surgery, with the goal of preventing or delaying relapse and extending survival, ideally achieving a cure.
After surgery to remove the tumor and in many cases the lymph nodes, stage IV patients have up to six frontline treatment options that have had considerable success. In many cases, if the first treatment proves ineffective or stops working, other therapies are available. These therapies work by shrinking tumors and halting or slowing disease progression to help extend life by months to years and perhaps even leading to a cure.
Source:- Uveal Melanoma Epidemiology
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