The Chinese Clinical Oncology launches special issue on melanoma

The Chinese Clinical Oncology (Print ISSN 2304-3865; Online ISSN 2304-3873; Chin Clin Oncol; CCO) has launched a special issue on systemic treatment of cutaneous and mucosal melanoma in September (http://www.thecco.net/issue/view/225) (Figure 1). It marks remarkable and unprecedented collaboration between experts in the field of melanoma from China and around the world in CCO.

Figure 1 Cover image of September issue in Chinese Clinical Oncology (CCO).

This special issue was led by Drs. Antonio Buzaid (Brazil), Jun Guo (China) and Sanjiv Agarwala (USA). The authors discussed the genotyping of melanoma and the current status of adjuvant therapy of high-risk melanoma, and offered the most comprehensive reviews on the current status of mucosal melanoma including genotyping, adjuvant therapy, the use of targeted agents and checkpoint inhibitors and a proposed treatment algorithm for this unique subset of melanoma patients. The issue has also put together an overall treatment algorithm for melanoma as it stands today in 2014. Hope you will enjoy this issue and that it will enhance your understanding of this challenging disease.

Meanwhile, we brought out our featured column “Statistics in Oncology Clinical Trials” dedicated to providing state-of-the-art review or perspectives of statistical issues in oncology clinical trials. Our Chairs for the column are Dr. Daniel Sargent and Dr. Qian Shi, Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA. We are hoping to engage and strengthen the collaboration between statisticians and oncologists for conducting innovative clinical trials. The topics covered in this special issue are as follows:

Foreword

• What can we do in the journey of fighting cancer?
  Shukui Qin

Preface

• Systemic treatment of cutaneous and mucosal melanoma
  Sanjiv S. Agarwala, Jun Guo, Antonio C. Buzaid

Review Article

• Melanoma adjuvant therapy
  Prashanth M. Thalanayar, Sanjiv S. Agarwala, Ahmad A. Tarhini

• Genotyping of cutaneous melanoma
  Isabella C. Glitza, Michael A. Davies

• Treatment of BRAF-mutated advanced cutaneous melanoma
  Van Anh Trinh, Yan You, Wen-Jen Hwu

• BRAF, MEK and KIT inhibitors for melanoma: adverse events and their management
  Elisabeth Livingstone, Lisa Zimmer, Julia Vaubel, Dirk Schadendorf

• Checkpoint inhibitors in the treatment of cutaneous malignant melanoma
  Jose Lutzky

• Toxicity of checkpoint inhibitors
  Rafael Aron Schmerling

• Algorithm for the management of metastatic cutaneous melanoma
  Antonio C. Buzaid, Sanjiv S. Agarwala, Axel Hauschild, Michael Atkins

• Adjuvant therapy of mucosal melanoma
  Bin Lian, Jun Guo

• Genotyping of mucosal melanoma
  Lu Si, Xuan Wang, Jun Guo

• Treatment of KIT-mutated metastatic mucosal melanoma
  Kevin B. Kim, Anas Alrwas

• Chemotherapy, biochemotherapy and anti-VEGF therapy in metastatic mucosal melanoma
  Chuanliang Cui, Bixia Tang, Jun Guo

• Checkpoint inhibitors in treatment of metastatic mucosal melanoma
  Bin Lian, Jun Guo

• Treatment algorithm of metastatic mucosal melanoma
  Xuan Wang, Lu Si, Jun Guo

Statistics in Oncology Clinical Trials

• Biomarker based clinical trial design
  Richard Simon

• On independent data monitoring committees in oncology clinical trials
  Janet Wittes, Mark Schactman

Acknowledgements

Disclosure: The author declares no conflict of interest.