Melanoma can be treated in different ways. Which treatment may work best for you? It depends on many things. These include the size, place, and stage of your melanoma. Factors also include your age, overall health, and what side effects you'll find acceptable.

You may have questions and concerns about your treatment choices. You may also want to know how you'll feel and function after treatment, and if you'll have to change your normal activities.

Your doctor is the best person to answer your questions. They can tell you what your treatment choices are, how successful the treatments are expected to be, and what the risks and side effects are. Your doctor may advise a specific treatment. Or they may offer several different choices and ask you to decide which one you'd like to use. It may be hard to make this decision, so it's important to gather the information and take the time you need to make the best decision.

Deciding on the best plan may take some time. Talk with your doctor about how much time you can take to explore your choices. You may want to get another opinion before deciding on your treatment plan. In addition, you may want to involve your family and friends in this process.

Treatments for melanoma are local or systemic:

• Local treatments. These remove, destroy, or control the cancer cells in one specific area. Surgery and radiation therapy are local treatments. For early melanomas, this may be all that is needed.
• Systemic treatments. These are used to destroy or control cancer cells in the entire body. Chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy are systemic treatments.

You may have just one type of treatment, or you may have a combination of treatments.

Each type of treatment has its own goal. Below is a list of treatments and their goals:

• Surgery. The goal of surgery is to remove the melanoma but leave as much of the nearby skin as intact as possible. Surgery can also be used to help treat melanoma that has reached the lymph nodes.
• Radiation therapy. The goal of radiation is to destroy cancer cells. It may be used after surgery to try to kill any cancer cells that are left. It may also be used to help treat melanoma that has come back after a first treatment or has spread to other parts of the body. Radiation therapy uses high energy X-rays or other types of radiation.
• Chemotherapy (chemo). The goal of chemo is to destroy cancer cells directly. It may be used to shrink tumors that can't be removed by surgery or to kill cells that have spread to other areas of the body (metastatic melanoma). Chemo is done with medicines.
• Immunotherapy. The goal of immunotherapy is to boost your body's immune system to shrink advanced melanoma tumors. This therapy is also called biologic therapy. It might also be used after surgery for some earlier stage melanomas. This is to lower the risk that the cancer will come back. This type of therapy is done with medicines that help your body's immune defense attack the cancer cells.
• Targeted therapy. The goal of targeted therapy is to shrink advanced melanoma tumors. This type of therapy is done with medicines. The medicines target certain parts of melanoma cells. For example, medicines called BRAF inhibitors target cells with a change in the BRAF gene. This gene is found in about half of all melanomas.

Researchers are always finding new ways to treat cancer. These new methods are tested in clinical trials. Talk with your doctor to find out if there are any clinical trials that you should consider.

At first, thinking about treatment choices may seem overwhelming. Talk with your doctors, nurses, and loved ones. Make a list of questions. Consider the benefits and possible side effects of each choice. Discuss your questions and concerns with your doctor before making a decision.