Treatment option overview How melanoma is treated There are treatments for all patients with melanoma. Surgery is the primary treatment of all stages of melanoma. Wide surgical excision takes out the cancer and some of the skin around the tumor. Skin may have to be taken from another area of the body and put on the place where the cancer has been taken out. This is called grafting.
Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells.
Chemotherapy may be taken by pill, or it may be put into the body by a needle in the vein or muscle. Chemotherapy is called a systemic treatment because the drugs enter the bloodstream, travel through the body, and can kill cancer cells throughout the body. If the melanoma occurs on an arm or leg, chemotherapy may be given with a technique called isolated arterial perfusion. In this method, chemotherapy drugs are put directly into the bloodstream of the arm or leg where the melanoma is found. This allows most of the drug to reach the tumor directly.