Malignant melanoma is the most aggressive form of
skin cancer and has been traditionally considered difficult to treat. The worldwide incidence of
melanoma has been increasing faster than any other type of
cancer. Early detection, surgery, and adjuvant
therapy enable improved outcomes; nonetheless, the prognosis of metastatic
melanoma remains poor. Several
therapies have been investigated for the treatment of
melanoma; however, current treatment options for patients with metastatic disease are limited and non-curative in the majority of cases.
Photodynamic therapy (
PDT) has been proposed as a promising minimally invasive therapeutic procedure that employs three essential elements to induce cell death: a
photosensitizer, light of a specific wavelength, and molecular
oxygen. However, classical
PDT has shown some drawbacks that limit its clinical application. In view of this, the use of nanotechnology has been considered since it provides many tools that can be applied to
PDT to circumvent these limitations and bring new perspectives for the application of this
therapy for different types of diseases. On that ground, this review focuses on the potential use of developing nanotechnologies able to bring significant benefits for anticancer
PDT, aiming to reach higher efficacy and safety for patients with
malignant melanoma.