Personalised medical management of patients with melanoma (part 1)

In recent years, a dynamic increase has been observed in occurrence of melanomas, especially in young and middle-aged patients. This is the reason why curing these patients has become a priority also in the economic context. Melanomas belong to a group of neoplasms of very high genetic heterogeneity. The most common genetic alterations concern two signalling pathways: mitogen-activated pathway (MAPK) and phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway. Identification of the characteristic molecular changes in the neoplastic tissue allows optimisation and individualisation of the therapy. Thus, it contributes to an increase in successful cancer treatment, reduction of treatment side effects and to improvement of the patients’ quality of life. Currently, the standard management of skin melanoma patients involves – along with surgical treatment and classical chemo/radiotherapy which is now less frequently used – also introduction of targeted therapy focused on molecular changes within the tumour tissue as well as immunotherapy which relies on activating the immune system.