Is it true that with adjuvant therapy, even stage 3 melanoma now has a high survival rate?

Yes, it is true that with adjuvant therapy, even stage 3 melanoma now has a much higher survival rate than ever before. The American Cancer Society reported in 2019 that the five-year relative survival rate for people with stage 3 melanoma had increased from roughly 68% to almost 75%. That is an incredible improvement and one worth celebrating.

Adjuvant therapy involves treating cancer after surgery with drugs and other treatments. For people who have stage 3 melanoma and are eligible for adjuvant treatment, combining the right drugs or immunotherapy can drastically reduce their risk of recurrence. Adjuvant therapies such as ipilimumab (Yervoy) have been found to significantly improve outcomes among patients with advanced melanoma when used in conjunction with surgical resection of disease spread beyond a single lymph node basin. Other studies also suggest benefit from adding radiation or chemotherapy to surgery for regional disease spread or for more advanced stages greater than IIIB without compromise of quality of life measures in some cases.

Of course, not everyone will respond to this kind of treatment; however, combined drug protocols may offer significant advantages over monotherapy alone in terms of long-term rates of complete clinical responses as well as overall improved survival rates compared to historic trends in stage 3 melanomas treated by surgical resection only. With continued advances being made today within the field of oncology medicine and research this trend can be expected to increase further still into the future providing hope even where prognosis was once considered grimly close before now just a few short years ago!