TOREMIFENE (FARESTON) IN TREATMENT OF PATIENTS WITH METASTATIC MELANOMA

Azatyan S.K., Zaliznyak N.A.

The median survival at the diagnosing of metastatic melanoma (MM) is 6 to 9 months. For lo- calized forms of melanoma, the standard treatment me- thod is surgery. As regards MM, there is no consensus about the system therapy, because an objective response is achieved in 15 to 23% patients, the overall survival rate being not affected. To assess the efficacy of immu- nohormonotherapy (IHT), two groups of MM patients were randomized: the first group (25 patients) was treat- ed with interferon-alpha-2b (IF), levamisole (L), and tamoxifen (20 mg/day), patients of the second, i.e. main group (18 patients) were treated with IF, L, and tore- mifene (120 mg/day). In the first group, the frequen- cy of full regression was 0.0; that of partial regression was 20.0% (overall response being 20%). In the second group, these rates were 5.5% and 27.8% (33.3%) re- spectively. The median of time before progression was 3.1 and 5.7 months respectively. The data on the over- al survival is not yet available.