Chemotherapy for melanoma skin cancer

Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells. These drugs target rapidly dividing cells throughout the whole body. This means that chemotherapy kills cancer cells but it can also damage healthy cells.

With most types of chemotherapy, the drugs travel through the blood to reach and destroy cancer cells all over the body, including cells that may have broken away from the primary tumour. This is described as systemic therapy.

Chemotherapy is sometimes used to treat advanced melanoma skin cancer when other treatments like targeted therapy or immunotherapy haven't worked. This type of chemotherapy can be called palliative chemotherapy.

The following are the chemotherapy drug and drug combination that may be used to treat melanoma:

• dacarbazine
• carboplatin and paclitaxel

These chemotherapy drugs are given through a needle into a vein (intravenously). How often and how long chemotherapy is given depends on the type of drug used, the dose and if other treatments are used.

Side effects of chemotherapy will depend mainly on the type of drug, the dose, how it's given and your overall health. Tell your healthcare team if you have side effects that you think are from chemotherapy. The sooner you tell them of any problems, the sooner they can suggest ways to help you deal with them.

Some common side effects of chemotherapy drugs used for melanoma are:

• low blood cell counts (called bone marrow suppression)
• nausea and vomiting
• diarrhea
• sore mouth and throat
• fatigue
• hair loss

Find out more about chemotherapy and side effects of chemotherapy. To make the decisions that are right for you, ask your healthcare team questions about chemotherapy.

Details on specific drugs change regularly. Find out more about sources of drug information and where to get details on specific drugs.