Melanoma Oncology Program

The Melanoma Oncology Program provides comprehensive multidisciplinary care to patients with melanoma and other skin cancers such as Merkel cell carcinoma, eccrine/sebaceous carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. This involves a dedicated team of specialists including surgical oncologists, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, nurses and social workers. The team meets on a weekly basis to review and discuss each patient's case, and a treatment plan is formulated according to the patient's medical condition and the extent of their disease.

Our surgeons offer cutting edge surgical options including sentinel lymph node biopsies (which assures an accurate melanoma staging), wide excisions with complex local closures, skin grafts or flaps when needed, and lymph node dissections when necessary. Innovative clinical trials are offered to patients at the highest risk of recurrence and to those with metastatic disease. Clinical trials offer a wide array of approaches toward fighting cancer - including standard chemotherapy, immunotherapy, biologic therapy and exciting new drugs under development - are available to help control disease and reduce the toxicity usually associated with treatment. Many of these clinical trials are only available at NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers such as Rutgers Cancer Institute. In addition to some of the most promising new therapies, and in recognition that cancers affect not only the individual afflicted but his/her entire family, a social worker is assigned to each family as needed to help them cope with this serious and often frightening disease.