Adnkronos (Adnkronos) – "About 10 years ago, the median survival of patients with metastatic melanoma was approximately 6 months; today, more than 50% of patients are alive 10 years after diagnosis, often disease-free and, in a significant percentage of cases, without treatment." Two strategies have made the difference: "on the one hand, targeted therapies based on genomic profiling and, on the other, immunotherapy.
But many other therapies are on the horizon, even near, including vaccine strategies combined with immunotherapy, cell therapies, and epigenetic therapies. Melanoma, once again, represents an archetype of new therapies and is the disease on which new therapies are being tested with a view to being extended to other conditions as well.
Mario Mandalà, past president of the Italian Melanoma Intergroup, said this at the IMI National Congress, which opens today in Bologna.
These new therapies, "in their complexity, have taught us once again the importance of the doctor-patient relationship," Mandalà emphasizes. "The doctor-patient relationship is crucial for many reasons: to improve compliance, treatment, and adherence to therapies; to better address, for example, both acute and chronic toxicities; but also to address, together with our patients, the problems of long-term survivors.
We have a percentage of patients, even with advanced disease, who are now recovering: they are alive for 10 years, and we need to care for them. This is very important, especially in the population, for example, those under 40, because melanoma is the third most common solid tumor in this age group. Where there is a very long life expectancy,” he explains, “caring for our patients is not just about treatment, but also about the effects of the treatments and the possibility of building a life after the fear and dread of dying. This is something we are discovering with our patients.”
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