Melanoma

Melanoma is a form of cancer that begins in melanocytes (cells that make the pigment melanin). It may begin in a mole (skin melanoma), but can also begin in other pigmented tissues, such as in the eye or in the intestines.

What are Melanomas?

The treatment of melanoma may involve surgery, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, or a combination of several treatment techniques. Each of these treatments is outlined below.

Metastatic Melanoma

Melanoma Research

Melanoma Symptoms and Cause

How is Melanoma Diagnosed and Treated?

Managing Choroidal Melanomas

Choroidal Melanoma

Melanoma Prognosis

Malignant Melanoma

What are the Statistics of Melanoma?

Melanoma History

Latest Melanoma News and Research

Discovery offers hope for reducing immune-related heart risks in cancer patients

For many people diagnosed with cancer, treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has dramatically extended lives.

20 Feb 2026

Genetic ancestry shapes acral melanoma biology and outcomes

Genetic ancestry may play a key role in how acral melanoma, a rare and aggressive type of skin cancer, develops and behaves, with important implications for diagnosis and treatment, according to researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and their collaborators.

18 Feb 2026

Cornell study finds existing drug could boost liver cancer immunotherapy

Immunotherapy – which activates the body's own immune system to kill cancer cells – has not worked well against a rare and fatal liver cancer, but a new Cornell University study finds an existing FDA-approved drug may allow the immunotherapy to fight the cancer as intended, opening the door to a potential treatment.

17 Feb 2026

Chronic inflammation shapes cancer progression and immunotherapy response

Chronic inflammation is both a driver and suppressor of cancer depending on context. Key players-NF-κB, IL-6, STAT3, TAMs, MDSCs, and Tregs-orchestrate a tumor-permissive microenvironment.

16 Feb 2026

Nanovaccine design boosts immune attack on HPV tumors

Throughout the past decade, Northwestern University scientists have uncovered a striking principle of vaccine design: Performance depends not only on vaccine components but also on vaccine structure.

11 Feb 2026

Transcription factor HOXD13 drives melanoma growth and immune evasion

A molecule that helps regulate gene activity has also been shown to drive skin cancer growth and tumors' ability to evade attack by the body's immune system, a new study shows.

11 Feb 2026

New nanoparticles enable the removal of melanoma tumors with low-power laser

Researchers at Oregon State University have developed and tested in a mouse model a new type of nanoparticle that enables the removal of melanoma tumors with a low-power laser.

10 Feb 2026

Tumor-targeted chimeric drug increases efficacy and limits side effects

Wistar scientists have combined a promising cancer therapy with a molecule that targets tumors to treat cancer more effectively.

7 Feb 2026

Common human fungus found to worsen melanoma aggressiveness

Cancer is one of the causes responsible for the most deaths worldwide; in 2020, for example, it resulted in ten million deaths. It has been estimated that micro-organism infections caused between 13-18% of these cases.

3 Feb 2026

Treating desmoplastic melanoma with immunotherapy before surgery can shrink or eliminate tumors

New results from a clinical trial co-led by UCLA investigators demonstrate how treating desmoplastic melanoma, a rare and aggressive skin cancer, with immunotherapy before surgery can dramatically shrink or even eliminate tumors, sparing patients from more aggressive surgeries and preserving their quality of life.

29 Jan 2026

Poop pills could help cancer patients respond to immunotherapy while reducing toxic side effects

Fecal microbiota transplants (FMT), can dramatically improve cancer treatment, suggest two groundbreaking studies published in the prestigious Nature Medicine journal.

28 Jan 2026

Cancer vaccines enter a new era of personalized immunotherapy

A new comprehensive review from researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai details how decades of cancer vaccine research are converging into a new era of more precise, personalized, and effective immunotherapies, particularly when combined with other cancer treatments.

22 Jan 2026

Pre-surgical medication use grows for pancreatic, gynecologic, and abdominal lining cancers

The second annual report from the National Cancer Database (NCDB) of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) documents a substantial rise in medication treatments, such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and hormone therapy, used before surgery to treat many cancers, often allowing less invasive surgery and helping clinicians assess how a patient's cancer responds to medication to guide the most effective treatment options.

22 Jan 2026

UT Southwestern performs first regional whole-liver chemotherapy for rare eye cancer

A team at UT Southwestern Medical Center this week became the first in Texas and neighboring states to successfully perform a novel procedure to deliver whole-liver chemotherapy to treat metastatic uveal melanoma, a rare and deadly eye cancer.

21 Jan 2026

Cancer mortality drops 34% as treatments and early detection improve

The 2026 cancer statistics reveal improved survival rates but highlight persistent inequities in cancer incidence and mortality across different populations.

16 Jan 2026

Novel antibody shows promise in overcoming resistance to cancer immunotherapy

According to a Phase I study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, published today in Nature Medicine, the novel monoclonal antibody linavonkibart demonstrated the potential to overcome treatment resistance to anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitors in multiple cancer types.

13 Jan 2026

Ultrasound-responsive nanocatchers enable precise in-situ tumor antigen capture

Professor Zhaohui Tang and Associate Professor Zhilin Liu from the team of Professor Xuesi Chen at the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, developed ultrasound-responsive in-situ antigen nanocatchers (S-nanocatchers), achieving precise spatiotemporal capture of tumor antigens and controllable acquisition of in-situ vaccines.

9 Jan 2026

Targeting IDO1 for cancer: Novel degraders show promise in preclinical studies

Cancer cells employ a variety of strategies to evade the immune system, and modern immunotherapies aim precisely at these escape mechanisms.

9 Jan 2026

Cornell-developed nanoparticles improve cancer immunotherapy effectiveness

A class of ultrasmall fluorescent core-shell silica nanoparticles developed at Cornell is showing an unexpected ability to rally the immune system against melanoma and dramatically improve the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy, according to a new study led by Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell Engineering researchers.

7 Jan 2026

Vitamin A derivative suppresses immune response and cancer vaccine efficacy

Scientists at the Princeton University Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research have identified novel mechanisms by which a metabolic derivative of vitamin A-all-trans retinoic acid-compromises both the body's normal anti-cancer immune response and, in a different context, the efficacy of a promising type of cancer vaccine.

5 Jan 2026