How long can one live with melanoma?

Melanoma is a malignant tumor that originates from melanocytes in the skin. It is highly malignant. However, in recent years, with the continuous advancement of medical technology, especially the rapid development of immunotherapy, the prognosis of melanoma patients has been significantly improved. Immunotherapy offers new treatment options for melanoma patients by activating or boosting the patient's own immune system to fight cancer.

As for the survival time of melanoma patients, this is a complex and changeable issue, because it is affected by many factors, including the stage of the tumor, treatment method, the patient's general condition, the location of tumor growth, the patient's age, and basic health conditions.

In the first stage, early-stage melanoma (I and IIA), nearly all (approximately 100%) patients survive 5 years or more after diagnosis. This is because the infiltration of cancer cells in early-stage melanoma is shallow. If it is completely removed through surgery in time, the prognosis of the patient is good. Many patients can survive for a long time, which may even reach 10 years, 20 years or more.

Entering the second stage, that is, intermediate melanoma (ⅡB stage and Ⅲ stage), the situation becomes complicated. About every 100 people with stage 2 melanoma, 85 people (about 85%) live 5 years or more after diagnosis. For stage 3 patients, almost 75 out of every 100 people (almost 75%) survive 5 years or more after diagnosis. For patients at this stage, the tumor may have invaded deeper tissues or metastasized to local lymph nodes, but after active treatment, such as surgical resection, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy, it is still possible to obtain a longer survival.

However, when melanoma develops into the fourth, or late, stage (Ⅳ stage), the situation becomes serious. At this time, the tumor has metastasized far away and the prognosis is poor. But fortunately, in recent years, researchers have developed new treatments for stage 4 melanoma, especially some immunotherapies, such as nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy), etc., have achieved remarkable results. A global study of 945 patients with advanced melanoma showed that more than 55 out of every 100 patients with BRAF-positive melanoma who were treated with the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab survived. 6years and a half or more, while about 45 out of 100people with BRAF-negative melanoma survive 6years and a half or more. These data suggest that even for patients with advanced melanoma, longer survival is possible with appropriate treatment.

It is important to note that although new treatments bring hope to patients with advanced melanoma, not every patient can achieve such therapeutic effects. The patient's survival period is also affected by many factors, including the specific condition of the tumor, the patient's physical condition, and various factors during the treatment process. Therefore, for melanoma patients, early detection and early treatment are still the keys to improving survival rates.

In addition, the survival time of melanoma patients is also related to the location of the tumor growth. Melanoma that occurs in the extremities has a relatively good prognosis and may survive longer; while melanoma that occurs in the head, neck and maxillofacial region has a relatively poor prognosis because melanoma in this area is more likely to metastasize to lymph nodes and distant sites.

Overall, melanoma patient survival time is a complex and variable issue that is affected by multiple factors. However, with the continuous advancement of medical technology and the emergence of new treatments, the prognosis of patients is gradually improving. For melanoma patients, maintaining a positive and optimistic attitude and actively cooperating with the doctor's treatment plan are important ways to improve survival rate and quality of life.

(Click to view an introduction to drugs used to treat melanoma.)

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Reference link: https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/melanoma/survival