Karabulut B.Sezgin V.C.Göksel G.Şanli U.A.Uslu R.Göker E.2024-07-222024-07-22200513018825http://akademikarsiv.cbu.edu.tr:4000/handle/123456789/19711There are still ongoing clinical trials and debates about adjuvant treatment of malignant melanoma. Between 1995 and 2004, fourty-nine patients with high risk operated non-metastatic malignant melanoma who had been treated with intermediate dose of interferon alpha were enrolled to the study. Twenty-three patients had regional lymph node metastasis at the time of diagnosis. Patients were treated with interferon alpha 2b (10 million units/day, five times a week for four weeks) as an induction therapy, followed by interferon alpha 2b (10 million units/day interferon three times a week for eleven months) as a maintanence therapy. The median follow-up time was 35 months (range 2-101 months). In this period, 7(14%) of patients had local recurrence, 12 (24%) of patients had regional lymph node metastasis and 20 (41%) of patients had distant metastasis. The 5-years overall survival, disease free survival and distant metastasis free survival rate of patients were 68%, 32% and 54% respectively. Therapy was well tolerated, no grade 4 toxicity related to therapy was observed. Comparing to natural history of malignant melanoma, these results are found to be encouraged.Turkishparacetamolrecombinant alpha2b interferonalpha2b interferonadultagedarticlecancer adjuvant therapycancer recurrencecancer survivalclinical articledose responsedrug efficacydrug megadosedrug tolerabilityfemalefollow uphigh risk populationhumanlymph node metastasismalemelanomathrombocytopeniatoxicitytreatment outcomeadjuvant therapycancer riskcontrolled studymaintenance drug doseunspecified side effectArticle