1998 Volume 1998 Issue Supplement96 Pages 91-98
The prognosis of malignant melanoma is very poor, especially when it originates in the head and neck region. Although radical surgery has been proposed as the best therapy for malignant melanoma of this area, it is difficult to perform with a sufficient safety margin because of the extensiveness of tumors and anatomical difficulties. Various methods, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, interferon therapy and other therapies have been suggested for treatment of this disease, but there are still no well established effective therapies.
We treated a 63-year-old female with malignant melanoma of the nasal cavity with chemohormonal therapy (DTIC, CDDP, MCNU and TAM), intra-arterial IFN-p infusion and radiation therapy. Because the initial treatment, involving only intra-arterial IFN-β infusion, had achieved only minor remission, we subsequently treated her with a combination of chemo-hormonal therapy, intra-arterial IFN-β infusion and radiotherapy. During the first course of this combination therapy, tumor regression occurred and the tumor almost regressed finally. Although the patient had metastasis to the right parotid gland and the cervical lymph nodes, both the primary tumor and metastatic lesions responded to this combination therapy. It was suggested that the combination of chemo-hormonal therapy, intra-arterial IFN-β infusion and radiation therapy could become a very effective treatment for malignant melanoma of the head and neck.
