Melanoma adjuvant therapy.

Adjuvant therapy targets melanoma micrometastases in patients with surgically resected disease that carry a high risk of death from melanoma recurrence. In this setting, adjuvant therapy provides the greatest opportunity for cure before progression into advanced inoperable stages. In randomized clinical trials, interferon-alfa has been shown to have a significant impact on relapse-free survival and, at high dosage, on overall survival compared with observation (E1684) and the GMK vaccine (E1694). This article reviews melanoma adjuvant therapy along with the ongoing and planned clinical trials.