Perspective: Melanoma diagnosis and monitoring: Sunrise for melanoma therapy but early detection remains in the shade

TL;DR

Early detection of melanoma is crucial for improving survival rates, but current diagnostic methods are insufficient; this paper reviews state-of-the-art techniques and advocates for new point-of-care technologies for earlier diagnosis.

Contribution

The paper provides an overview of current melanoma detection methods and argues for the development of newer, point-of-care diagnostic technologies for early detection.

Findings

Early detection significantly improves survival rates.

Current therapies have limited long-term success.

New diagnostic technologies are needed for early melanoma detection.

Abstract

Melanoma is one of the most dangerous forms of cancer. The five-year survival rate is 98% if it is detected early. However, this rate plummets to 63% for regional disease and 17% when tumors have metastasized, that is, spread to distant sites. Furthermore, the incidence of melanoma has been rising by about 3% per year, whereas the incidence of cancers that are more common is decreasing. A handful of targeted therapies have recently become available that have finally shown real promise for treatment, but for reasons that remain unclear only a fraction of patients respond long term. These drugs often increase survival by only a few months in metastatic patient groups before relapse occurs. More effective treatment may be possible if a diagnosis can be made when the tumor burden is still low. Here, an overview of the current state-of-the-art is provided along with an argument for newer technologies towards early point-of-care diagnosis of melanoma.