Metastatic melanoma-A review of current and future perspective

Abstract: Metastatic Melanoma, the fifth most common cancer in the western countries and the most common malignancy diagnosed in United States present itself as the most lethal treatment resistant cancer worldwide. In addition to the reactive oxygen species(ROS), mutations in the genes encoding receptors and non-receptor tyrosine/serene/threonine protein kinases are known to be involved in its etiology. Kinases are molecular players of cell survival, growth, and proliferation and migration that mediate their effects via various signal transduction pathways. A number of such molecular players have been previously found to be mutated and hyper phosphorylated in melanoma. Although, several systemic therapies including cytotoxic chemotherapy, targeted drugs, hormonal therapy, radiation therapy, bio-chemotherapy, and therapies that inhibit negative regulation of immune system have been approved from U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for metastatic melanoma treatment. However, no systemic therapy has meaningfully changed its survival end points so far and surgery still presents primary treatment option for advanced and metastatic melanomaa due to its highly resistant nature towards systemic drugs, high rate of severe, life-threatening, or fatal side effects, and un satisfactory overall response rate. Therefore, there is still a need to develop therapies that target the unique molecular profile of melanoma tumors.