| Abstract: | The incidence of melanoma is increasing, both in Slovenia and world-wide, more than any other form of cancer. According to the Cancer Registry of Slovenia, 415 patients were diagnosed with this disease in 2009 (1). Surgical removal of skin melanoma is the primary curative treatment for patients with early-stage disease. There are approximately 80% of such patients. In high-risk patients (around 10%), we also recommend treatment with high doses of interferon-α2b (2, 3). Metastatic melanoma is still an incurable disease with a 5-year survival of less than 5%. However, the prognosis for these patients has improved in the last few years, thanks to new developments in the field of systemic treatment. Besides standard treatment with systemic chemotherapy, new registered medicines are now also available with a different mechanism of action than chemotherapy, such as immunotherapy with the monoclonal antibody ipilimumab, BRAF inhibitors vemurafenib and dabrafenib, and MEK inhibitors (2, 3). |
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