Therapeutic vaccines for metastatic melanoma

Excerpt: Current treatment options for melanoma include surgery, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy. However, these treatments have not been shown to significantly improve overall survival in patients with melanoma. Approximately 15% of patients with melanoma at the time of first diagnosis have stage III (median survival = 24 months) or stage IV disease (median survival = 7 months). Due to the poor prognoses for patients with advanced melanoma, researchers are developing other treatments intended to prevent recurrence and extend survival. Therapeutic cancer vaccines (TCVs) are being developed as monotherapy and adjunctive therapy (with surgery and/or cytokine immunotherapy). TCVs are designed to stimulate the body's natural defen...