Table of contents:

Melanoma, a..
Melanoma treatment
Targeted therapy

A 50% mutation of the BRAF gene - caused by overexposure to sunlight - is responsible for the formation of melanoma.

Important! Melanoma detected at an early stage, when the thickness of the lesion is less than 0.8 mm, gives a more than 90% chance of a full cure.

Melanoma, ie

This type of cancer forms in melanocytes, which are pigment cells. It usually appears on the skin, however, the area of occurrence can also be:

the retina of the eye,
rectum,
mucous membranes of the mouth.

Important! Melanoma usually develops on the basis of already existing skin lesions (e.g. moles).

The condition usually occurs in people over 40 years of age. The risk of the disease increases in people who have low levels of natural pigment in the skin, as well as those who are genetically burdened:

expose the skin too intensively to the sun's rays,
use tanning beds.

Important! Melanoma can be hereditary. In 24-40% of cases, it is caused by the occurrence of mutations in the CFEN2A gene. The gene plays an important role in the body (among other things, it is responsible for coding for proteins that prevent uncontrolled cell division).

Melanoma treatment

The therapy is tailored individually to each patient:

depending on the stage of the disease at the time of diagnosis,
the result of the histopathological examination,
lymph node involvement and distant metastases.

Important! The first step in the treatment of cutaneous melanoma is surgical excision of the lesion together with a margin of healthy tissue.

Melanoma, photo: panthermedia

In the treatment procedure, a lymph node biopsy (sentinel node) is performed. After receiving the results, the doctor decides whether or not to remove the lymph nodes and continue with the treatment.

Important! In the treatment, it is not usually necessary to undertake complementary therapy in the form of chemotherapy, radiotherapy or immunotherapy.

Drugs used in systemic treatment include nivolumab, pembrolizumab, trametinib, cobimetinib.

Targeted therapy

It is among the modern treatments for melanoma. Molecularly targeted therapy (personalised therapy) is a breakthrough in the treatment of patients with skin cancer. This type of therapy makes it possible to prolong the life of patients diagnosed with cancer.

Targeted therapy is possible thanks to molecular genetics and its development and the increasing knowledge of cancer. The therapy is one of the forms of treatment included in chemotherapy, however, it uses drugs that are not typical cytostatic agents.

Important! Targeted therapy is based on molecularly planned drugs - using specific cellular mechanisms that block these mechanisms or tumour cell receptors.

Targeted cancer treatment belongs to personalised medicine based on the knowledge of the molecular pathogenesis of an individual patient's lesions. This makes it possible to optimise as well as individualise treatment. It is possible to tailor and apply targeted therapy aimed at blocking a key mechanism in the development of the disease.

According to specialists, molecularly targeted therapy, i.e. direct targeting of a drug against a cancer cell with a specific genetic alteration, is the future of cancer treatment.

Personalised treatment is effective when there is a molecular target in the patient's cancer cell - a specifically altered gene (protein) created on the matrix of the abnormal gene.

In order to use molecularly targeted therapy, the tumour profile must be examined. A variety of molecular biology methods are used here. Among other things, the expression of receptors on the cell membrane (number of channels through which the inside of the cell communicates with the outside environment) is assessed. If the expression level is high, the tumour is highly influenced by factors produced by the body (e.g. hormones) and it can be assumed that, by blocking the receptors with a specific drug, the affected tumour cells will disappear.

The most commonly used drugs that are molecularly targeted are monoclonal antibodies (the end of the drug name contains the particle mab), as well as kinase inhibitors(nib).

For the treatment of melanoma patients in whom the V600E activating mutation of the BRAF gene has been identified, BRAF inhibitors (e.g. vemurafenib and dabrafenib) are the drugs of choice.

Important! Despite advances in the diagnosis and treatment of cutaneous melanoma, the effectiveness of treatment depends mainly on the stage of the disease. That is why prevention is so important.

way4cure.com

Melanoma - modern therapies

Related

Topics

See also in

WE RECOMMEND CATEGORY CONTENT Cancer treatment