Lynn E. Spitler, M.D.

Dr. Lynn E. Spitler received her M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School and completed her Residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in Immunology. She then joined the faculty at the University of California Medical Center where with three other physicians she founded the UCSF Melanoma Clinic in 1969.

In 1978, she founded the Melanoma Clinic at Children's Hospital of San Francisco, the forerunner of the current Northern California Melanoma Center (NCMC).

Dr. Spitler's particular interest is in therapies aimed at preventing recurrence of melanoma in patients who have been rendered clinically tumor free by surgery or other therapeutic modalities but have high risk for recurrence. An example of such a patient would be someone who has had spread of the melanoma from a primary melanoma to regional lymph nodes. Standard therapy is to surgically excise the lymph nodes and some doctors recommend that this be followed by high-dose interferon. Interferon therapy is toxic and is not very effective. Dr. Spitler believes we need to find agents that are more effective and less toxic. Therefore, the Northern California Melanoma Center is conducting trials of agents which boost the immune response in an effort to help the patient's own immune system recognize tumor cells as foreign and reject them thus delaying or preventing recurrence of the melanoma.

Dr. Spitler says, "If you can treat a patient who already has had a melanoma and is at high risk for recurrence with an agent which will prevent or delay the recurrence, you have done a real service for the patient, because you have provided a period of good quality of life." There are a number of therapeutic options for patients in this category as discussed in "Surgical Adjuvant Treatment of Melanoma". They are available now and many patients are referred to the NCMC for information regarding these therapeutic options.