Evolution of the treatment of cutaneous melanoma in the past decade.

Abstract

Melanoma is a malignancy originating from melanocytes, which are responsible for producing melanin. Most melanoma cases (>90%) are cutaneous, with mucosal and uveal melanomas being less common (<1-5% of cases, with variations by country). The focus of this revision is to review the current management of cutaneous melanoma and assess its evolution over the last 10 years. It is also focused on the implementation of the systemic therapy and understanding how it has changed the surgical approach. A comprehensive research was conducted using MEDLINE as the database and using Pubmed as the search engine. As observed from the results, in general, surgical treatment is the preferred approach in early stages of melanoma, and as the disease progresses to later stages, different strategies are adopted, such as systemic therapy, which can be used as either neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment. The continued development of immunotherapy molecularly targeted agents, and innovative treatment modalities offers hope for further improvements in survival and quality of life for patients with melanoma. Additionally, advancements in precision medicine and biomarker-driven approaches hold the potential to further refine patient selection and optimize treatment outcomes.