ROLE OF RADIOTHERAPY AS TREATMENT FOR MALIGNANT-MELANOMA IN THE HEAD AND NECK

Radiotherapy as a treatment modality can be applied with curative, pal liative and elective intent in patients with malignant melanoma in the head and neck. Curative treatment occasionally may be considered for the treatment of lentigo maligna melanoma, usually to a dose of 18 x 3 Gy or 10 x 4.5 Gy. In a palliative sense, radiotherapy plays a role i n painful. head and neck recurrences when they are part of disseminate d disease. Elective treatment after node dissection may be applied in case of narrow resection margins, extracapsular rupture, or tumour spi ll. Usually around 5-8 fractions are applied in these cases, the dose per fraction being greater than or equal to 4 Gy, 1 or 2 fractions a w eek. With this schedule, side effects are usually mild. In the future, improvement of the results of radiotherapy may be obtained by combini ng it with hyperthermia.