Research status and prospect of immune checkpoint inhibitors for melanoma

Melanoma is a common cutaneous malignant tumor in clinic. The incidence of melanoma is on the rise, with serious phenotype and easy metastasis. Prior to targeted therapy and ICI, patients with advanced melanoma had a very poor prognosis, with a 5-year survival rate of less than 10%. ICI extended progression-free survival and overall survival and improved quality of life in patients with advanced melanoma compared with conventional treatment. As more and more attention has been paid to the clinical application of ICI, its limitations have been further discovered. Some patients develop resistance or insensitivity to ICI, so further research on the mechanism of drug resistance is needed. In addition, drug combination may be a way to improve the effect of ICI. This article reviews the clinical efficacy of ICI in the treatment of melanoma and the mechanism of drug resistance.