Innovations in the treatment of melanoma

What is the meaning of new modalities of systemic therapy (neoadjuvant therapy)?

  • Potential improvement in survival compared to classical adjuvant therapy
  • Potentially weak effect in earlier stages of the disease
  • Safety for the patient in terms of reducing the aggressiveness of the treatment has yet to be proven

Gene testing - profiling in melanoma

  • Newly introduced is the 31 Gene Expression Test (GEP), which was developed to try to predict a patient’s risk for disease recurrence (return) or metastatic disease, including the chance of sentinel lymph node positivity in a patient with stage I, II or III melanoma.
  • This test detects the expression level of 31 genes that are associated with the occurrence of disease recurrence and metastatic pain, with the help of a quantitative RT-PCT test
  • The test classifies patients as low-risk, moderate-risk, and high-risk
  • It is intended as a guideline whether to perform a sentinel lymph node biopsy in patients older than 55 years with a tumor thickness of less than 2 mm.
  • The current price of the test is an obstacle to its wide application in practice (> 7000 EUR)