Recent developments in nanomedicine for melanoma treatment.

Melanoma is a most aggressive skin cancer with limited therapeutic options and its incidence is increasing rapidly in recent years. The discovery and application of new targeted therapy agents have shown significant benefits. However, adverse side-effects and resistance to chemotherapy remain formidable challenges in the clinical treatment of malignant melanoma. Nanotherapeutics offers an important prospect of overcoming these drawbacks. The anti-tumoral applications of nanomedicine are varied, including those in chemotherapy, RNA interference, photothermal therapy, and photodynamic therapy. Furthermore, nanomedicine allows delivery of the effector structures into the tumor site via passive or active targeting, thereby allowing increased therapeutic specificity and reduced side effects. In this review, we summarize the latest developments in the application of nanocarrier-mediated targeted drug delivery to melanoma and nanomedicine-related clinical trials in melanoma treatment. We also discuss existing problems and opportunities for future developments, providing direction and new thoughts for further studies.

Nanoscale drug delivery for targeted chemotherapy.

Despite significant improvements in diagnostic methods and innovations in therapies for specific cancers, effective treatments for neoplastic diseases still represent major challenges. Nanotechnology as an emerging technology has been widely used in many fields and also provides a new opportunity for the targeted delivery of cancer drugs. Nanoscale delivery of chemotherapy drugs to the tumor site is highly desirable. Recent studies have shown that nanoscale drug delivery systems not only have the ability to destroy cancer cells but may also be carriers for chemotherapy drugs. Some studies have demonstrated that delivery of chemotherapy via nanoscale carriers has greater therapeutic benefit than either treatment modality alone. In this review, novel approaches to nanoscale delivery of chemotherapy are described and recent progress in this field is discussed.

Meta-Analysis of the Safety and Efficacy of Interferon Combined With Dacarbazine Versus Dacarbazine Alone in Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma.

The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy and safety of interferon (IFN) combined with dacarbazine (DTIC) (experimental group) versus DTIC alone (control group) in cutaneous malignant melanoma. After searching all available databases, eligible articles were identified and subjected to quality assessment. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3; combined relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated for survival rates, response rates, and adverse events. Eight randomized controlled trials published between 1990 and 2014 involving 795 patients were included in the meta-analysis. Compared with DTIC alone, IFN combined with DTIC significantly increased the overall response rate (RR = 1.59, 95% CI 1.21-2.08, P = 0.0008),the complete response rate (RR = 3.30, 95% CI 1.89-5.76, P < 0.0001), 2-year survival (RR = 1.59, 95% CI 0.99-2.54, P = 0.050) grade ≥3 hematologic toxicity (RR = 2.30, 95% CI 1.32-4.02, P = 0.003), neurotoxicity (RR = 18.15, 95% CI 5.34-61.74, P < 0.00001), and flu-like symptoms (RR = 6.31, 95% CI 1.95-20.39, P = 0.002). The partial response rate, grade ≥3 nausea and vomiting, treatment-related, and 1- and 3-year survival were not significantly different between IFN combined with DTIC and DTIC alone. IFN combined with DTIC may moderately improve the complete response rate, but increases the incidence of adverse events and has no significant effect on 1- and 3-year survival in cutaneous malignant melanoma.

Application of Nanotechnology in the Diagnosis and Therapy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide. However, the inherent limitations of traditional surgery and insensitivity to radiation and chemotherapy result in failing treatment and poor prognosis. In recent years, the development and advances of nanotechnology has brought new hope for the diagnosis and treatment of HCC. This article reviews the development of nanoparticles used for cancer detection, diagnosis and treatment due to their large specific surface area and unique optical, electronic and magnetic properties. Moreover, studies have shown that after intended surface modification, nano-carriers can achieve active targeting effect, which improves the efficiency of chemotherapeutic drugs and decreases their side effects. In this review, we provide an overview of these studies results, patents about novel nanomaterials and conclude with a discussion about future development.

Temozolomide for Treating Malignant Melanoma.

Melanoma is one of the most malignant forms of skin cancer; with a rapidly increasing prevalence. Early-stage melanoma is curable, but advanced metastatic melanoma is almost always fatal, and patients with such advanced disease have short median survival. Surgery and radiotherapy play a limited role in the treatment of metastatic melanoma. Rather, chemotherapy remains the mainstay of treatment, although other approaches, including biotherapy and gene therapy, have been attempted. The authors hereby, evaluated the use of temozolomide (TMZ) for treating metastatic melanoma compared to dacarbazine (DTIC), the effectiveness of TMZ for treating brain metastases, as well as TMZ resistance and how the efficacy of TMZ in malignant melanoma can be increased. Two chemotherapeutic regimens are commonly used for palliative treatment of malignant melanoma: intravenous administration of DTIC and oral administration of the alkylating agent temozolomide (TMZ). Compared to DTIC, TMZ is very well tolerated and has an advantage in terms of improving the quality of life of patients with metastatic melanoma. While the prognosis is currently unpromising, chemotherapy plays a palliative role for patients with metastatic melanoma. The toxicity of treatment regimens based on DTIC and TMZ do not differ significantly, although TMZ is costlier. These findings provide a reference for future researchers via a comprehensive analysis of the relevant literature.