Other treatments include chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy or a combination of the three. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are very damaging both to the cancer cells and also to the patient's healthy cells, and can actually lead to further malignancies. Immunotherapy, also known as biological therapy, is designed to help the immune system to fight off the malignant cancer cells. Interferon and Interleukin are common forms of immunotherapy used for melanoma. Interferon, a substance naturally produced in the body, works to boost the body's immune reaction to cancer cells and may even inhibit the growth of these cells.
Interleukin stimulates the growth of white cells, the body's main defence mechanism.
Gene therapy may offer a radical new approach in the treatment of melanoma and other cancers. Over the past decade, considerable advances have been made in understanding and manipulating genes. Genes are the biological units of heredity that determine a person's traits such as hair and eye colour, or more complex characteristics such as the oxygen-carrying ability of the blood. It is estimated that a human being has 100,000 genes. A flaw in almost any one of them can result in a disease.