Does Adjuvant Therapy Improve the Prognosis of Stage II and III Melanoma Patients? An Analysis of 831 Cases

Abstract

In Japan, adjuvant chemotherapy using DTIC, ACNU, VCR, and/or interferon beta (DAVFeron) has been widely accepted for stage II and III melanoma patients. Other adjuvant therapies such as daily dermal injection of interferon beta (feron therapy) and once in 2 to 4 weeks injection of interferon beta (feron maintenance therapy) are also utilized; however, no clear analysis of their efficacy has been performed thus far. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of adjuvant therapies from the data in patients’ databases collected by the Japanese Melanoma Study Group by using Cox proportional hazards regression model. The results showed that feron maintenance therapy improved survival in both stage II and III melanoma but that DAVFeron and feron therapy failed to have any significant effect. Although this study involves a retrospective cohort, we suggest that decisions to apply adjuvant therapy should consider this result.