For patients with stage I and II disease, surgery is the treatment of choice. Your doctor may wish to remove additional normal skin around the site of the biopsy depending on how deep the melanoma was.
For patients with stage III disease, your doctor may recommend a lymph node dissection, followed by a medicine called interferon.
More information about surgery
If tumor has spread to other sites, several treatments such as chemotherapy (Cisplatin, DTIC), Immunotherapy (IL-2, interferon) or vaccines might be offered by your doctor.
More information about chemotherapy
For more information on the treatment of melanoma, please visit: http://www.melanoma.com/treating.html.
Alberto Pappo, MD
Texas Children’s Cancer Center
Reviewed and edited by the CureSearch.org Medical Editorial Board
June 2008