Active specific immunotherapy (melanoma vaccines) has also shown considerable promise in treating advanced melanoma and theoretically should be even more effective in early stages of the disease. About 20 percent of patients have had partial or complete remissions with the most successful of the melanoma vaccines. Patients who have a clinical response have an improved survival rate, even with residual disease.
There are no side effects from the vaccine except for some short-term soreness at the site of injections and, possibly, painful lumps after a long series of treatments. This makes it one of the easiest cancer treatments to tolerate. Melanoma and kidney cancer appear to be unusually sensitive to biological therapy, and a great variety of emerging biological agents and approaches will be tried first in these two diseases.
Adjuvant Therapy The removal of draining lymph nodes as a preventive (prophylactic) measure in patients without clinically enlarged lymph nodes has not been proved to improve the cure rate but still has its advocates among surgeons. The issue is being studied by university surgeons in an international trial nearing completion.
Several trials are addressing the issue of whether biological response modifiers such as tumor vaccines, interferons or interleukins that have proved useful in Stage IV disease can help prevent recurrence when used after surgery for Stage II and III disease.
There is suggestive evidence that some tumor vaccines can prolong disease-free survival, and more definite results should be forthcoming from several trials within the next few years.
