|
Cancer Treatment
In order to diagnose malignant melanoma, a physician
will
remove the primary cancer and
a pathologist will examine
the tumor under the microscope. Most patients
with disease
localized to the skin can be
cured with surgery.
The
majority of patients with
spread of melanoma to local lymph
nodes cannot be cured with
current therapies. The average
survival of patients with
melanoma that has spread outside
the local area is only about
8 months, with only 5-11% of
patients surviving beyond 6
years. Thus, there is a great
interest in improving early
diagnosis, which is the most
simple way of improving the
cure rate for patients with
melanoma. |
