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The Role of Surgery for Melanoma in an Era of Effective Systemic Therapy

  • Melanoma (RJ Sullivan, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Oncology Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

The recent discovery of effective systemic treatments for melanoma has dramatically improved the prognosis for patients with advanced disease. As a result, the multidisciplinary management of melanoma has evolved significantly. In the past decades surgery was reserved for symptomatic palliation in patients with metastatic melanoma. Today surgical treatment of patients responding to systemic therapies has become an integral part of disease control.

Recent Findings

Current efforts are focused on minimizing the morbidity of surgery (laparoscopic inguinal lymph node dissection, selective completion lymphadenectomy) as well as combining surgery with systemic therapy in novel ways (neoadjuvant targeted and/or immunotherapy, isolated limb infusion/perfusion with systemic immunotherapy).

Summary

This review examines the use of surgery for advanced melanoma in the era predating modern systemic therapy as well as potential applications moving forward.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Surgical Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA

    Siavash Raigani, Sonia Cohen & Genevieve M. Boland

Authors
  1. Siavash Raigani
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  2. Sonia Cohen
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  3. Genevieve M. Boland
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Genevieve M. Boland.

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Conflict of Interest

Siavash Raigani, Sonia Cohen, and Genevieve M. Boland declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

This article is part of the topical collection on Melanoma

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Raigani, S., Cohen, S. & Boland, G.M. The Role of Surgery for Melanoma in an Era of Effective Systemic Therapy. Curr Oncol Rep 19, 17 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11912-017-0575-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11912-017-0575-8

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