Therapeutic Efficacy of Nanodrug Delivery Compared With Current Nonsurgical Treatments for Patients With Cutaneous Melanoma: A Systematic Review

Melanoma is an aggressive skin cancer characterized by high metastatic potential and drug resistance with limited responses to available therapies. Therefore, further research regarding treatments and technologies, such as nanoparticles for cutaneous melanoma, is essential. The objective of this systematic review was to summarize published evidence on the safety and efficacy of using nanoparticles with cutaneous melanoma treatments to reduce tumor recurrence and/or survival outcomes for melanoma patients. A literature search of PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Google Scholar was conducted from January 2008 to January 2023. Publications describing randomized and nonrandomized clinical trials of nanoparticle cutaneous melanoma treatment were included. The risk of bias for the included studies was rated according to the Cochrane Handbook, and the strength of the clinical data and subsequent melanoma treatment recommendations were graded according to the Oxford Center for Evidence-Based Medicine Levels of Evidence. Seven studies were included, which involved 825 adult patients. Most of these patients had stage III/IV cutaneous melanoma. The outcomes measured across the studies were immune response, progression-free survival, tumor response rate, and toxicity. Both the MelQbg10 vaccine and nab-paclitaxel induced positive responses in patients. Novel nanoparticle-based cutaneous melanoma treatments have been shown to have increased therapeutic efficacy, improved survival, and reduced tumor recurrence compared with current nonsurgical therapies in selected studies. However, this is limited by the small number of studies, heterogeneous interventions, and limited robust comparative data.