Melissa Wilson, PA-C, MPAS

Physician Assistant, Senior
UPMC Hillman Cancer Center


Adjuvant therapy is an extra treatment you get after surgery to lower the chance that your cancer will come back. Adjuvant therapy for Stage III melanoma often includes immunotherapy. These drugs stimulate your immune system to attack the cancer cells.


Immunotherapy treatments for stage 3 melanoma include the following FDA-approved options:


nivolumab (Opdivo)
pembrolizumab (Keytruda)
ipilimumab (Yervoy)
combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab
aldesleukin (Proleukin)
interferon alfa-2b (Intron A)
peginterferon alfa-2b (Sylatron/PEG-Intron)


The first three drugs listed above are known as checkpoint inhibitors. They release the brakes on your immune system by blocking proteins on the surface of immune cells that would normally stop them from attacking the cancer.

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