Guadalajara, Mexico - Emanual Maverakis, specialist of the University of California at Davis, said that melanoma, one of the most deadly skin tumors, can be treated with surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and immunotherapy.

Speaking at a conference at the Old Civil Hospital in Guadalajara, he spoke about the use of immunotherapy to treat cancers such as melanoma.

Maverakis, a dermatologist and immunologist, has developed research on cancer. His works have focused on treatment with therapy that modulates the immune system in patients with metastatic melanoma.

Immunotherapy seeks, through the use of drugs, to stimulate the immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells effectively.

According to data from the World Health Organization, the incidence of skin cancers has increased in recent decades. Between two and three million skin cancers and 132 thousand melanoma cancers occur each year globally.

Maverakis's work, through intralesional therapy to treat cutaneous melanoma metastases, has been cited in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines for the management of metastatic melanoma.

In addition, his research is aimed at reducing the toxicity of cancer immunotherapy by blocking tumor necrosis factor (TNF), which is a protein released by the cells of the immune system.

"We want the immune system to attack melanoma. In the future we will stop operating on melanoma," Maverakis said during the presentation of successful cases of metastatic melanoma treated with immunotherapy by his team at the University of California at Davis.

Emanual Maverakis, a graduate of the Harvard Medical School where he obtained the academic excellence Summa Cum Laude, was invited to participate in the General Session, an academic space for HCG doctors, by the Dermatology Service of the former Civil Hospital of Guadalajara, "Fray Antonio Alcalde."