Novel Challenges and Personalized Treatment of Melanoma

A special issue of Medicina (ISSN 1648-9144). This special issue belongs to the section "Dermatology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 September 2026 | Viewed by 457

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Centre of Clinical Research, National Cancer Institute, Vilnius, Lithuania
Interests: melanoma; innate Immunity; inflammation

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Guest Editor
Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Zurich, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland
Interests: skin cancers; melanoma; immunotherapy; oncolytic virotherapy; clinical research
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Melanoma remains one of the most aggressive forms of skin cancer and continues to pose a significant challenge to clinicians and researchers worldwide. While early-stage disease can often be cured by surgical excision, advanced melanoma is characterized by its biological heterogeneity, complex immune interactions, and variable responses to therapy.

In recent years, the introduction of immunotherapy and targeted therapy has transformed the treatment landscape, leading to unprecedented improvements in patient outcomes. However, these advances have also revealed new challenges, including primary and acquired resistance, immune-related adverse events, and the limited efficacy of standard therapies in specific patient subgroups such as those with uveal or acral melanoma or with central nervous system involvement.

The next frontier in melanoma care lies in personalized and precision-based approaches. The integration of genomic, transcriptomic, and immunologic data into clinical decision-making holds great promise for improving patient stratification and therapeutic response prediction. Equally important is the understanding of the tumor microenvironment, spatial heterogeneity, and mechanisms of immune evasion that define disease progression and treatment outcomes.

This Special Issue, “Novel Challenges and Personalized Treatment of Melanoma,” aims to provide an overview of the latest advances and ongoing challenges in melanoma management. We invite original research articles, reviews, and short communications addressing, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Novel immunotherapeutic and targeted strategies;
  • Biomarkers for therapy response and resistance;
  • Tumor microenvironment and immune profiling;
  • Liquid biopsy and ctDNA-based monitoring;
  • Spatial and single-cell analyses in melanoma research;
  • Management of rare melanoma subtypes;
  • AI and digital approaches in melanoma diagnostics;
  • Real-world and translational evidence in precision oncology.

By bringing together multidisciplinary perspectives, this Special Issue seeks to highlight innovative research directions and to promote a more personalized approach to melanoma diagnosis and treatment.

We warmly invite you to contribute your work and insights to this Special Issue.

Dr. Vincas Urbonas
Dr. Egle Ramelyte
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • melanoma
  • personalized treatment
  • biomarkers
  • immune checkpoint inhibitors

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

20 pages, 691 KB  
Review
Circulating Cytokines in Melanoma Prognosis: Current Evidence and Future Perspectives
by Ignas Lapeikis and Vincas Urbonas
Medicina 2026, 62(5), 960; https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina62050960 (registering DOI) - 14 May 2026
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Abstract
Cutaneous melanoma remains a highly lethal malignancy once metastatic. Current prognostic stratification relies primarily on staging and serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), which incompletely captures inter-patient biological heterogeneity. Increasing evidence highlights the importance of tumour–immune interactions in melanoma progression and response to therapy. This [...] Read more.
Cutaneous melanoma remains a highly lethal malignancy once metastatic. Current prognostic stratification relies primarily on staging and serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), which incompletely captures inter-patient biological heterogeneity. Increasing evidence highlights the importance of tumour–immune interactions in melanoma progression and response to therapy. This narrative review summarises and critically evaluates current evidence on circulating cytokines as prognostic and biologically informative biomarkers in melanoma, with particular emphasis on the immunotherapy era. Several circulating cytokines—most consistently interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-8 (IL-8)—are associated with adverse outcomes in advanced melanoma. However, baseline elevations predominantly reflect tumour burden and systemic inflammation, indicating prognostic rather than treatment-specific predictive value. In contrast, early on-treatment changes, particularly decreases in IL-8, may better capture evolving tumour–immune interactions during immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. C-reactive protein (CRP), a downstream marker of IL-6 signalling, similarly reflects systemic inflammatory status and carries reproducible prognostic significance. Early circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) dynamics demonstrate strong associations with response and survival and may provide complementary insight into tumour burden kinetics. Conversely, cytokines central to effective antitumour immunity, such as interferon-γ (IFN-γ), are more reliably characterised at the tumour transcriptional level than by circulating protein measurements. Circulating cytokines represent biologically meaningful but methodologically challenging biomarkers in melanoma. Their most realistic clinical role lies in complementing established prognostic factors within integrated biomarker frameworks rather than functioning as standalone tests. Standardisation of pre-analytical handling, assay platforms, and sampling time points, together with prospective validation, is essential before broader clinical implementation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Novel Challenges and Personalized Treatment of Melanoma)
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