How long does targeted therapy take to work for melanoma?

Targeted medicines are chosen when melanoma cells have a molecular change that the medicine can block. A response may involve shrinking or stabilising visible or internal disease, and it may not be reflected by how you feel on a particular day. The timing differs with the medicine, the sites involved, the amount of disease, and your overall health. Some symptoms can improve before a scan, while other changes require imaging or blood tests to interpret. A scan is a planned checkpoint, not the only measure of how treatment is affecting you.

Take the medicine exactly as prescribed and keep a record of doses, symptoms, temperature, and new medicines. Do not stop or restart treatment without speaking with your oncology team. Attend monitoring visits even when you feel well, because side effects and treatment response may need examination or tests. Tell the team about skin changes, diarrhoea, fever, unusual tiredness, vision changes, muscle symptoms, or heart-related sensations so they can decide whether treatment needs adjustment.

Call your oncology service urgently for a high temperature, severe diarrhoea, repeated vomiting, new breathlessness, chest discomfort, fainting, confusion, marked weakness, or a rapidly spreading rash. Seek emergency care for severe breathing difficulty, collapse, or sudden neurological symptoms. Do not wait for the next scan when a new or rapidly worsening symptom appears.

Ask which molecular finding makes this medicine appropriate, when your first response assessment is planned, and what result would lead to continuing, changing, or pausing treatment. Ask whom to contact after hours and which symptoms require same-day advice.