Dacarbazine DTIC and carboplatin as an outpatient treatment for disseminated malignant melanoma

Occasionally long-term survival in disseminated melanoma can be obtained th rough chemotherapy, We treated 22 patients with disseminated melanoma with an outpatient regimen consisting of dacarbazine (DTIC) and carboplatin. Thr ee patients had a complete response lasting 4+, 9 and 9 months (survival 4, 10 and 16 months), respectively; 3 patients had a partial response lastin g 4, 6 and 8 months (survival 6+, 11+ and 14 months), respectively. Overall response was 27% (95% confidence interval 11-50%). Toxicity was relatively mild and mainly due to nausea. In 3 patients the dose of carboplatin was r educed because of grade 4 haematological toxicity. This described easy outp atient regimen shows comparable results as other polychemotherapeutic regim ens in disseminated melanoma, but with a relatively mild toxicity profile.