Future treatment will be based on individual tumor gene expression signatures

The majority of patients present with early-stage melanoma, when surgery is often curative. Patients with metastatic disease are poorly served by current drugs, with very few approved treatment options and no widely accepted standard of care. A significant unmet need therefore remains for more effective agents, which has made melanoma a popular R&D target.

Most melanoma is diagnosed at an early stage, with surgery proving curative in many patients. For advanced disease, current treatment options are inadequate, with only three approved drugs: interferon alpha-2b in the adjuvant setting, and dacarbazine and interleukin-2 for metastatic disease. Most patients are therefore treated in clinical trials.

Approved products for melanoma confer only mediocre response rates with minimal effects on survival, and high levels of toxicity, thus restricting their use to certain patients. Unmet needs therefore prevail, highlighting the urgent need to develop novel therapeutics offering significant clinical improvements over existing treatment options.

Melanoma has emerged as a relatively popular R&D target for oncology drug developers, with 11 products currently in late-phase development. While incidence of melanoma is not as high as that of the 'big four' tumor types, it is still substantial, which could result in significant financial reward if a pipeline product shows positive results.

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