Fernandes Gil Nuno Castro
Comenius University, Sasinkova 4, 813 72 Bratislava, Slovakia.
Discoveries (Craiova). 2019 Jun 26;7(2):e93. doi: 10.15190/d.2019.6.
Brain metastases are about ten times more frequent than a brain primary tumor, being present in 20-40% of adults with systemic cancer. Together with lung cancer and breast cancer, skin cancers such as melanoma are top primary tumors which metastasizes to the brain. Advanced melanoma is well known for its propensity to metastasize to the brain, with 80% of patients presenting brain metastasis at the autopsy. However, current therapies are not very efficient and brain metastases are in most of the cases lethal. Treatment of melanoma brain metastases with surgery and/or radiation therapy results in a median overall survival of only about four months after diagnosis. New immunotherapies such as targeted or immunomodulatory drugs, many in clinical trials, have shown promise, with some immunomodulatory drugs being able to at least double the overall survival rates for patients with melanoma brain metastases. This review focuses on the recent advances and future potential of using immunotherapy, such as the newly developed immunomodulatory drugs, for melanoma brain metastases therapy. Immunomodulatory drugs bring a great promise as new tools for melanoma treatment in particular and for the treatment of other types of malignancies in general.
脑转移瘤的发生率比原发性脑肿瘤高约十倍，在20%至40%的成年系统性癌症患者中存在。与肺癌和乳腺癌一样，黑色素瘤等皮肤癌是转移至脑部的主要原发肿瘤。晚期黑色素瘤以其易于转移至脑部而闻名，80%的患者在尸检时出现脑转移。然而，目前的治疗方法效率不高，在大多数情况下，脑转移瘤是致命的。采用手术和/或放射治疗黑色素瘤脑转移瘤，诊断后的中位总生存期仅约四个月。新的免疫疗法，如靶向或免疫调节药物，许多正在进行临床试验，已显示出前景，一些免疫调节药物能够使黑色素瘤脑转移瘤患者的总生存率至少提高一倍。本综述重点关注使用免疫疗法，如新开发的免疫调节药物，治疗黑色素瘤脑转移瘤的最新进展和未来潜力。免疫调节药物作为黑色素瘤特别是其他类型恶性肿瘤治疗的新工具，带来了巨大的希望。
