There are many options for treating melanoma and our center offers the most up-to-date interventions, including surgical approaches guided by sentinel lymph node mapping, adjuvant and neo-adjuvant targeted therapy and immunotherapy, and advanced radiation techniques. Once your care team has the results of your diagnostic tests and has assigned a stage to your cancer, our specialists from both Brigham and Women’s and Dana-Farber — including dermatologists, surgical oncologists, radiation oncologists and medical oncologists — will work with you and your family to develop a personalized treatment plan that works for you.
Throughout your treatment, we want you to feel like you’re an active participant in your care. Please talk with your care team about your treatment goals and always feel free to ask questions during your appointments. Your care team works at both the Brigham and Women’s and Dana-Farber campuses in Boston. You may have appointments at either hospital, but we conveniently located right around the corner from one another for easy access and care coordination.
Your treatment options will be based on your health history and the stage of your cancer. You may have one or more of the treatment options listed below.
Immunotherapy: Immunotherapy uses the body's immune system to fight against cancer cells. Immunotherapy helps train the immune system to recognize and attack the cancer cells. Immunotherapy may be given before and after surgical treatment of melanoma.
Targeted Therapy: Targeted therapies for melanoma, including BRAF and MEK inhibitors, block pathways involved in tumor growth and spread. These therapies are personalized based on individual mutations present in a patient’s melanoma. They may be given to prevent melanoma from recurring after surgical resection or to treat advanced melanoma.
Cellular Therapies: Newly approved cellular therapies are having a significant impact on how we treat melanoma. Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy is a type of cell therapy where white blood cells known as TILs are removed from a patient’s tumor, multiplied in a lab, and then infused back into the patient to fight relapsed melanoma.
Radiation Therapy: Radiation therapy uses high-energy rays to shrink and kill cancer cells. In melanoma, this may be used to treat advanced tumors that have spread distantly in the body or brain or to treat some subtypes of melanoma after surgical removal. The Department of Radiation Oncology has two separate units, one at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the other at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, staffed by providers who work at both locations. If your treatment includes radiation therapy, your health care team will decide with you which is the right location for you.
Learn more about for melanoma.
Chemotherapy: , or chemo, uses medicine to shrink and kill cancer cells. It is sometimes used in combination with surgery or immunotherapy to treat melanoma. Your health care provider can give you more information about which chemo you’re receiving.
Learn more about for melanoma.
Clinical Trials: Patients with melanoma may also be eligible to participate in clinical trials at Dana-Farber Brigham 91精品. The Center for Melanoma Oncology is a major center for clinical trials in melanoma and continues to bring in new studies for patients seeking the latest clinical trials.
Clinical trials study the effectiveness of new cancer treatments and may offer benefits to patients with melanoma. Previous clinical studies have resulted in a variety of new treatments, including mRNA-based personalized melanoma vaccines, that have helped to advance the field of cancer medicine. Ask your health care team if this may be an option for you.
Our surgical oncologists offer extensive expertise in the most advanced, minimally invasive procedures for melanoma. They use evidence-based guidelines to minimize your hospital stay, recovery time and complications while improving outcomes and patient satisfaction.
Learn more about surgical treatment options.
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