Despite recent advances, the treatment of malignant melanoma still results in the relapse of the disease, and second line treatment\r\nmostly fails due to the occurrence of resistance. A wide range of mutations are known to prevent effective treatment with\r\nchemotherapeutic drugs. Hence, approaches with biopharmaceuticals including proteins, like antibodies or cytokines, are applied.\r\nAs an alternative, regimens with therapeutically active nucleic acids offer the possibility for highly selective cancer treatment whilst\r\navoiding unwanted and toxic side effects. This paper gives a brief introduction into the mechanism of this devastating disease,\r\ndiscusses the shortcoming of current therapy approaches, and pinpoints anchor points which could be harnessed for therapeutic\r\nintervention with nucleic acids.We bring the delivery of nucleic acid nanopharmaceutics into perspective as a novel antimelanoma\r\ntherapeutic approach and discuss the possibilities for melanoma specific targeting. The latest reports on preclinical and already\r\nclinical application of nucleic acids in melanoma are discussed.
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