Current surgical management for melanoma.

Abstract

Melanoma is a major malignant cutaneous neoplasm with a high mortality rate. In recent years, the treatment of melanoma has developed dramatically with the invention of new therapeutic agents, including immune checkpoint inhibitors and molecular-targeted agents. These agents are available as adjuvant therapies for postoperative patients with stage IIB, IIC, and III melanomas. Furthermore, neoadjuvant therapy has been studied in several global clinical trials and has demonstrated promising and favorable clinical efficacy, mainly in patients with palpable regional lymph nodes. A recent large phase III clinical trial investigating early lymph node dissection for sentinel lymph node metastases demonstrated no survival benefits. Based on these data, surgery should be reconsidered as an appropriate treatment modality for melanoma. The need for invasive surgical procedures will be reduced with the invention of effective adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapies and novel clinical trial data on regional lymph node dissection. However, surgery still plays an important role in treating early-stage melanoma, accurately determining the disease stage, and effective palliative treatment for advanced melanoma. In this article, we focus on surgery for primary tumors, regional lymph nodes, and metastatic sites in an era of remarkably revolutionary drug treatments for melanoma.