New Treatment Options for Advanced Melanoma

Abel Sánchez is battling advanced melanoma, the most aggressive form of skin cancer.

[Video is in Spanish.]

Abel Sánchez’s melanoma developed from a mole he had on his scalp since childhood.

“The first step was surgery to remove the melanoma. But a month later, I noticed changes in the skin around the wound,” says Sánchez, 42.

To address this, his dermatologist referred him to Dr. Leonel Hernández-Aya, M.D., a medical oncologist specializing in skin cancer at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Health System.

Diagnostic tests revealed that the melanoma had spread to Sánchez’s liver and lungs. “Realizing how rapidly the melanoma was spreading was quite traumatic,” Sánchez says.

At Sylvester, Abel underwent treatment with immunotherapy using monoclonal antibodies and targeted therapies for specific mutations, but these methods failed to halt the cancer’s progression.

However, Dr. Hernández-Aya offered Abel the opportunity to join a clinical trial for patients who do not respond to existing treatments for advanced melanoma.

“Here, we were able to offer new medications as part of a clinical trial for cell therapy, and he has achieved excellent results,” Dr. Hernández-Aya says.

“It was very encouraging to see the lesions shrinking and disappearing within a few months,” Abel says.

Thanks to innovative clinical trials, Sylvester has played a crucial role in developing new therapies for advanced melanoma.

One significant advancement is the first therapy using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL), which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this year.

“It took over three decades to achieve an approved cell therapy for solid tumors. This is groundbreaking because it harnesses the patient’s immune system cells to fight melanoma,” Dr. Hernández-Aya explains.

How TIL therapy works

In TIL therapy, T cells are extracted from a patient’s tumor tissue, activated, and expanded in a laboratory.

These enhanced lymphocytes are then infused back into the patient to help the immune system target and destroy melanoma cells.

Dr. Hernández-Aya says that with the latest immunotherapy and cell therapy treatments available at oncology centers like Sylvester, there has been a significant improvement in the prognosis for patients with metastatic melanoma.

“We’ve made tremendous progress in the past 15 years, now able to control tumors and even achieve long-term remissions in many cases,” he says. “Previously, we did not have effective medications to treat advanced melanoma.”

Sánchez notes that Sylvester was the only facility offering this innovative treatment option. “My wife and I are incredibly grateful to the doctors at Sylvester for giving us hope and a chance at life,” he says.

Dr. Leonel Hernández-Aya, M.D., is a medical oncologist specializing in ocular melanoma, cutaneous melanoma, and other malignant skin neoplasms, including advanced squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and Merkel cell carcinoma.

This article and video were written and produced by Shirley Ravachi for ‘Caring for Your Health,’ a series of medical-related stories broadcast regularly on Telemundo 51. For more stories like this, visit the UHealth YouTube channel.

Tags: advanced melanoma, cancer research, cancer therapy, clinical trials, Dr. Leonel Hernández-Aya, FDA approved treatments, immunotherapy, melanoma progression, melanoma treatment, skin cancer, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, TIL therapy