When you think of treatment for skin cancer, you reasonably imagine a patient just undergoing surgical excision — cutting out the tumor from the skin. This is the first treatment people with skin cancer will undergo, and for some patients, that’s all they will need.
However, melanoma may require more treatments, known as adjuvant therapies. “Adjuvant therapy for melanoma is used after you’ve done a complete surgical excision, and now you’re trying to help improve the chance of disease-free survival for the patients,” says Kaveh Alizadeh, MD, a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon in New York.
Dr. Alizadeh is a board-certified Plastic Surgeon with private practices in New York City and Long Island and formerly served as the Chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Westchester Medical Center and New York Medical College.
References
American Cancer Society. (2023). Chemotherapy for melanoma skin cancer.
American Cancer Society. (2022). Immune checkpoint inhibitors to treat cancer.
American Cancer Society. (2023). Radiation therapy for melanoma skin cancer.
American Cancer Society. (2023). Targeted therapy for melanoma skin cancer.
Skin Cancer Foundation. (2022). Melanoma overview.
Sosman, J.A. (2023). Adjuvant therapy for cutaneous melanoma. UpToDate.
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