Cellular Therapy and Cytokine Treatments for Melanoma

Cancer immunotherapy plays an important role in the treatment of patients with advanced stage melanoma. Recombinant cytokines were the first tested and approved treatments; however, due to disappointing response rates and severe toxicities, their use has significantly decreased. More recently, adoptive cell transfer therapies have shown to be a promising new treatment strategy able to induce complete and durable remissions in patients with melanoma progressive on first-line treatment. This review provides an overview of the cellular therapies (tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, T-cell receptor T cells, chimeric antigen receptor T cells) and cytokine treatments (interleukin-2 [IL-2], IL-15, IL-7, IL-10, IL-21, interferon alpha, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) for melanoma.