If there’s a risk that the melanoma could come back (recur) after surgery, other treatments are sometimes used to reduce the risk. These are known as neoadjuvant treatments if used before surgery and adjuvant (or additional) treatments if used after. They may be used alone or together.
Treatments that enter the bloodstream are used if there is a risk a tumour will come back in other parts of the body (further from the regional sites). These are known as drug therapies or systemic treatment.
The main drug therapies for melanoma are:
| immunotherapy | drugs that use the body’s own immune system to recognise and fight some types of cancer cells; can be used before or after surgery |
| targeted therapy | drugs that attack specific features within cancer cells, known as molecular targets, to stop the cancer growing and spreading; usually given after surgery |
Radiation therapy to treat melanoma
Rarely, radiation therapy will be used after surgery if there’s a risk the tumour could come back at the original site or to the nearby lymph nodes. Radiation therapy is the use of targeted radiation to damage or kill cancer cells in a particular area of the body.
For further information about immunotherapy, targeted therapy and radiation therapy, see Treatment for advanced melanoma. Your doctor may also suggest you join a clinical trial.
→ READ MORE: Treatment for advanced melanoma
Podcast: Immunotherapy & Targeted Therapy
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A/Prof Rachel Roberts-Thomson, Medical Oncologist, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, SA; A/Prof Robyn Saw, Surgical Oncologist, Melanoma Institute Australia, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and The University of Sydney, NSW; Alison Button-Sloan, Consumer; Dr Marcus Cheng, Radiation Oncologist Registrar, Alfred Health, VIC; Prof Anne Cust, Deputy Director, The Daffodil Centre, The University of Sydney and Cancer Council NSW, Chair, National Skin Cancer Committee, Cancer Council, and faculty member, Melanoma Institute Australia; Prof David Gyorki, Surgical Oncologist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, VIC; Dr Rhonda Harvey, Mohs Surgeon, Dermatologist, Green Square Dermatology, The Skin Hospital, Darlinghurst and Sydney Melanoma Diagnostic Centre, RPA, NSW; David Hoffman, Consumer; A/Prof Jeremy Hudson, Southern Cross University, James Cook University, Chair of Dermatology RACGP, Clinical Director, North Queensland Skin Cancer, QLD; Dr Damien Kee, Medical Oncologist, Austin Health and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Clinical Research Fellow, Walter & Eliza Hall Institute, VIC; Angelica Miller, Melanoma Community Support Nurse, Melanoma Institute Australia, WA; Romy Pham, 13 11 20 Consultant, QLD; A/Prof Sasha Senthi, Radiation Oncologist, Alfred Health, and Clinical Research Fellow, Victorian Cancer Agency, VIC; Dr Chistoph Sinz, Dermatologist, Melanoma Institute Australia, NSW; Dr Amelia Smit, Research Fellow, Melanoma and Skin Cancer, The Daffodil Centre, The University of Sydney and Cancer Council NSW; Nicole Taylor, Clinical Nurse Consultant, Crown Princess Mary Cancer Centre, Westmead Hospital, NSW.
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