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4 treatment settings, 3 with more than one named option. Each section lays out the options the standard of care names, what each is for, the trials behind them with their recorded results, the side effects and cautions on record, and questions to ask. Built from the cancer page's standard-of-care rows; nothing here is advice for your case.
Dermoscopy of the parallel ridge pattern and biopsy of any changing pigmented lesion of the palm, sole or nail; nail matrix biopsy for longitudinal melanonychia with Hutchinson sign.
Magnified skin imaging and whole-body photo mapping, increasingly read by algorithms, to find melanoma early and avoid unnecessary biopsies.
Checking the whole skin for suspicious moles finds melanomas earlier, but no trial has yet shown that screening everyone saves lives, so most countries target people at high risk.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Wide local excision with thickness-based margins, distal amputation for subungual disease when needed, sentinel lymph node biopsy for primaries over 0.8 mm.
Removing just the first lymph node a tumour drains to, instead of all of them, to check for spread.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Adjuvant nivolumab or pembrolizumab; dabrafenib-trametinib for BRAF V600-mutant disease; neoadjuvant immunotherapy for macroscopic nodes as in NADINA.
Nivolumab was the second PD-1 blocker and is often combined with ipilimumab. Long-term data show about half of advanced melanoma patients alive at 10 years on the combination.
Pembrolizumab is a PD-1 blocking antibody approved in more than 40 settings, from melanoma and lung cancer to the first tumour-agnostic approval for mismatch-repair-deficient tumours in 2017, and before and after surgery in triple-negative breast cancer. A subcutaneous form arrived in 2025, and it is the backbone partner for ADCs and personalised neoantigen vaccines.
Dabrafenib plus trametinib is the BRAF-plus-MEK pill combination, approved for BRAF V600E lung cancer and, since 2022, for any solid tumour with that mutation.
12-month EFS 83.7% vs 57.2%; HR 0.32.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Colitis with ipilimumab (1+3 mg/kg) · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 25% | 14.4% |
| Hepatitis with ipilimumab · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 15% | 13.4% |
| Colitis · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 2.9% | 1.7% |
| Hepatitis · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 1.8% | 1.5% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Hypothyroidism (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 8% | - |
| Pneumonitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 3.4% | - |
| Colitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 1.7% | - |
| Hepatitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 0.7% | - |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.
Nivolumab plus ipilimumab or anti-PD-1 monotherapy; BRAF-MEK inhibitors for BRAF-mutant tumours; imatinib for KIT-mutant tumours; tunlametinib for NRAS-mutant disease in China; trials of CDK4/6 inhibitors.
Nivolumab was the second PD-1 blocker and is often combined with ipilimumab. Long-term data show about half of advanced melanoma patients alive at 10 years on the combination.
Ipilimumab was the first checkpoint inhibitor (2011), and proved the immune system could be unleashed against cancer.
Pembrolizumab is a PD-1 blocking antibody approved in more than 40 settings, from melanoma and lung cancer to the first tumour-agnostic approval for mismatch-repair-deficient tumours in 2017, and before and after surgery in triple-negative breast cancer. A subcutaneous form arrived in 2025, and it is the backbone partner for ADCs and personalised neoantigen vaccines.
Dabrafenib plus trametinib is the BRAF-plus-MEK pill combination, approved for BRAF V600E lung cancer and, since 2022, for any solid tumour with that mutation.
The drug that started the targeted therapy era in 2001, turning chronic myeloid leukaemia into a manageable condition with near-normal life expectancy.
Tunlametinib is a Chinese MEK inhibitor approved in 2024 for advanced melanoma with an NRAS mutation, a group with no targeted therapy elsewhere in the world, and in phase 3 trials with vemurafenib for BRAF-mutant disease and for colorectal cancer.
Palbociclib was the first CDK4/6 inhibitor (2015), and in 2026 became the first approved as maintenance in HER2-positive, hormone-positive breast cancer.
No trial record is attached to this row yet. The trials tab lists what is recruiting and the landmark trials for this cancer.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Colitis with ipilimumab (1+3 mg/kg) · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 25% | 14.4% |
| Hepatitis with ipilimumab · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 15% | 13.4% |
| Colitis · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 2.9% | 1.7% |
| Hepatitis · Monotherapy pooled unless stated | 1.8% | 1.5% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Colitis (with nivolumab 1+3) · Nivolumab 1 mg/kg + ipilimumab 3 mg/kg, melanoma | 25% | 14.4% |
| Hepatitis (with nivolumab) · Nivolumab 1 mg/kg + ipilimumab 3 mg/kg, melanoma | 15% | 13.4% |
| Rash (with nivolumab) · Nivolumab 1 mg/kg + ipilimumab 3 mg/kg, melanoma | 28% | 4.8% |
| Adrenal insufficiency (with nivolumab) · Nivolumab 1 mg/kg + ipilimumab 3 mg/kg, melanoma | 8% | 2.6% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Hypothyroidism (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 8% | - |
| Pneumonitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 3.4% | - |
| Colitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 1.7% | - |
| Hepatitis (immune-mediated) · Pooled monotherapy data, >2,800 patients | 0.7% | - |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
| Side effect | Any grade | Grade 3+ |
|---|---|---|
| Neutropenia · PALOMA-2 with letrozole | 80% | 66% |
| Leukopenia · PALOMA-2 with letrozole | 39% | 25% |
| Infections · PALOMA-2 with letrozole | 60% | 7% |
| Anaemia · PALOMA-2 with letrozole | 24% | 6% |
Rates from the label or pivotal trial as recorded on the product page; each grade 3+ figure links to its source.
Add these to your appointment list, or take the full question set for this cancer.