A Role of Immunotherapy in Metastatic Malignant Melanoma

Abstract

Malignant melanoma is a tumor of the melanocytes of the skin with different types, that can metastasize to many organs including the brain at the advanced stages. Metastasis to brain is most dreadful complication, and at times untreatable as it's noted in the late stages. Therefore, tremendous effort has been made in the past decades to treat metastatic melanoma patients more efficiently. Although chemotherapy is one of the treatment options, it also interferes with all rapidly dividing cells including the non-cancerous cells; therefore one should consider the side effects. As there is lot of evidence that melanoma is immunogenic, a concept of immunotherapy has risen. Immunotherapy uses molecules of the body's own immune system and disrupts the growth of cancer cells has gained a lot of attention in the past two decades. Adoptive cell therapies (ACT), vaccines, viruses, and cytokine administration in immunotherapy stimulate T cells to recognize and destroy the cancer cells. This article is a brief review of various molecules and strategies that are currently used in immunotherapy against malignant melanoma. These include the anti-Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA4) antibody, cytokine administration, vaccine therapy, oncolytic viruses, adoptive cell therapy, and inhibitor of STAT3 activation.