Adjuvant immunotherapy for melanoma

Surgical resection is the treatment for early cutaneous melanoma and is often curative. Some patients, however, will subsequently relapse. High-risk features in the primary tumor and regional lymph node metastasis highlight patient subsets that are at increased risk for recurrent disease. Immunotherapy in the form of checkpoint inhibitors ipilimumab, nivolumab, and pembrolizumab have been shown to improve recurrence-free survival for node-positive melanoma in the adjuvant setting and will be the focus of this review.

Automated summary

Surgical resection is the main treatment for early cutaneous melanoma, but some patients are at risk of relapse, especially those with high-risk features. Immunotherapy targeting checkpoint inhibitors has been shown to improve recurrence-free survival in node-positive melanoma patients.