Biological therapy in the treatment of melanoma

Abstract

Melanoma is one of the most aggressive tumors and its incidence is on the rise. The low rates of survival in metastatic melanoma has led to the development of new drugs for this type of patient, such as biological therapy which has shown remarkable results. This therapy is based on stimulation of the immune system to fight tumoral cells through: injection of cytokines with immunomodulatory properties (interleukin-2, alpha-interferon), vaccination with tumor antigens or immune cells that process tumor antigens, adoptive immunotherapy, inhibition of immune checkpoints (PD-1, CTLA-4), inhibition or stimulation of immune modulator molecules (OX-40, LAG-3), inhibition of signaling pathways involved in cell proliferation (Raf/MAPK/ERK signaling pathway), or administration of oncolytic viruses. Biological therapy in melanoma has shown promise in laboratory and clinical studies, with more therapeutic targets to be revealed as new molecular and cellular mechanisms of the disease are discovered.

Keywords

• biological therapy
• immunotherapy
• metastatic melanoma
• immunotherapy