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Melanoma: Biologically Targeted Therapeutics

Ernest C. Borden, MD, has assembled a multidisciplinary team of established and emerging leaders to detail the clinical problems and factors influencing the therapeutic deployment of these biologicals. The contributors focus on providing the rationale and background for translating the many promising biologically targeted therapies via clinical trials into effective new therapies. Among the interventional agents treated are: cytokines, monoclonal antibodies, targeted inhibitors, cellular therapies, and angiogenesis inhibitors. Special attention is given to adjuvant therapies for melanoma in patients staged as being at high risk for recurrence. These include interferons, vaccines aimed at stimulating T cell response, and therapies targeted at abnormal melanoma cell proliferative signaling and angiogenesis inhibitors. Among the cutting-edge therapies discussed are novel cytokines that influence dendritic NK and T cell function, an allogenic cellular extract vaccine, and new targets (Nf-kB and IL-8) for anti-angiogenesis therapies.