Pharmacological Basis of Melanoma Chemotherapy

Abstract

Melanoma is the most aggressive and lethal type of skin cancer. First-line therapy for metastatic melanoma is either immune checkpoint inhibitors or BRAF/MEK inhibitors, however, chemotherapy plays an important role in palliative treatment of refractory melanoma. Three classes of cytotoxic chemotherapy, alkylating agents (dacarbazine, temozolomide, nitrosoureas), platinum drugs (cisplatin, carboplatin), and plant alkaloids (paclitaxel, nab-paclitaxel, docetaxel) have been investigated in clinical trials as monotherapy or combination therapy. Pharmacological basis of these drugs is gone into detail in this thesis. Also, the development of resistance to each drug is summarized since melanoma is generally resistant to chemotherapy.