Systemic treatment and mental health of melanoma patients

Over the last few years, metastatic melanoma has been transformed from almost always a fatal disease to one that can often be controlled for years, or even cured. With new therapies, including immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors, targeted therapies with BRAF and MEK inhibitors, and, coming soon, cancer vaccines, patients with advanced disease can now have five-year survival rates of about 50%. Dr. Payne will be discussing these new treatments.

Improved survival rates have increasingly focused attention on the quality of life for survivors, who experience anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and cognitive impairment. There are also side effects from immunotherapy, such as colitis, endocrine dysfunction, and cardiac, neurological, and renal effects. She will be discussing the needs of this patient group, especially in terms of psychiatric comorbidity.

This 1-hour session will be followed by a half-hour meeting of the UK Cancer Psychiatry Network. If you are interested in joining the network, please email greg.shields@slam.nhs.uk prior to the meeting.

Presented by the UK Cancer Psychiatry Network

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