What's New and Emerging? Management of Metastatic Liver Tumors from Other Sites
Melanoma
Malignant melanoma is a unique tumor that may be under significant immune system control. In other words, this disease is often regulated and controlled by the body's own cancer fighting system. For this reason, a new very aggressive approach to the management of surgically resectable disease has newly gained favor. This approach may be further supported by the promising, newly emerging adjuvant therapies being studied for melanoma treatment.
The most recent data on the resection of isolated liver metastases of melanoma indicate a 5-year survival benefit of between 25 - 35% when compared to historical Stage IV melanoma controls. Patients with isolated liver metastases should strongly consider entering into a trial of adjuvant therapy. One approach is to perform complete hepatic tumor resection (with ablation of residual lesions if necessary) in order to render the patient free of gross residual tumor. The tumor obtained at resection is then processed for an autologous tumor vaccine protocol. Patients who cannot be rendered free of gross tumor undergo the least invasive procedure that allows acquisition of a sufficient tumor volume for vaccine production.
