Treatment Options For Subungual Melanoma

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is treatment involving certain drugs or drug combinations that utilize special characteristics of an individual's immune system to help target and eliminate cancer cells. Immunotherapy is often used in combination with surgery for subungual melanoma. One type of immunotherapy drug is called checkpoint inhibitors, which work by targeting certain proteins that allow cancerous cells to hide from the patient's immune system. Another form of immunotherapy is referred to as cytokines, which increase the production and activity of the cancer hunting cells within the individual's immune system. Furthermore, oncolytic virus therapy is a form of immunotherapy that works by using harmful viruses that have been modified in a laboratory to fool the patient's immune system into initiating an attack on the melanoma cancer cells. This form of immunotherapy is not taken systemically but is injected directly into the melanoma-infiltrated tissues.