NAPERVILLE, Ill. – May 14, 2026 - She didn’t like the way it looked. That’s why Ashley Daly, a suburban mom of two, first made an appointment with Lauren Taglia, MD, PhD, a dermatologist, about removing a mole on her right calf.

Days later, the Wheaton mom and wife got a call from Dr. Taglia. The mole was malignant.

Daly was diagnosed with melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer that can spread quickly if not detected and treated early.

The good news is the cancerous mole was caught early, surgically removed in 2020 and Daly was considered cancer-free.

What is this lump?

In 2023, Daly was watching television when she noticed a lump in her lower thigh on her right leg. This time she waited months to contact a doctor. The first doctor she saw at another institution dismissed her concerns, saying the lump was nothing.

In April 2024, at her annual exam, Daly showed the lump to her primary care physician, who ordered an MRI and eventually a biopsy, which confirmed a melanoma. The cancer was considered metastatic, having spread to another area on her right leg.

Dr. Taglia says patients with a significant history of melanoma need long-term follow up, given the increased risk of further skin cancer development.  A new lump or bump in the skin of a patient with known melanoma is particularly concerning and needs evaluation.

Turning to Northwestern Medicine for Advanced Care

Daly met with Ashley Hardy, MD, a surgical oncologist at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital, who first recommended treatment to shrink the tumor, which had grown over time from the size of a dime to the size of a ping pong ball.

John Ayers, MD, a medical oncologist at the Northwestern Medicine Warrenville Cancer Center, prescribed three rounds of immunotherapy, medications that encourage the patient’s own immune system to recognize and attack melanoma cells.

The treatment worked so well Dr. Hardy had to put a marker on Daly’s thigh to make sure she could find the tumor to remove it during surgery. In October 2024, Dr. Hardy surgically removed the tumor and the surrounding tissue and lymph nodes, which were tested for cancer and came back cancer-free.

Immunotherapy proves to be a game-changer

For the next year, Daly continued immunotherapy treatments every four weeks, following a protocol from research that found melanoma patients who completed a full year of immunotherapy treatments did better long-term than those who did not.

 “In the past 10 years, immunotherapy and targeted therapy have dramatically improved life expectancy for patients with advanced melanoma,” Dr. Taglia said.

Daly’s immunotherapy treatments ended in July 2025. Now she undergoes regular scans to monitor for anything suspicious and she knows to act right away if something doesn’t look or feel right. Daly is encouraging others, especially those with a previous history of melanoma, to look for suspicious moles and other warning signs.

For a list of melanoma symptoms and treatment options, visit nm.org.

CHICAGO – September 23, 2025 – For the first time at Northwestern Medicine, doctors have successfully treated a patient with uveal melanoma — a rare form of eye cancer — using Hepzato Kit, an FDA-approved therapy that delivers chemotherapy directly to the liver. The treatment option could help patients with stage 4 uveal melanoma live longer by shrinking tumors that have spread to the liver and can not be removed surgically.

“This type of therapy has been shown to prolong survival for patients while also offering a very tolerable side effect profile, which are two things we want to prioritize,” said Sunandana Chandra, MD, medical director for melanoma and cutaneous oncology with the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. “It’s especially meaningful to have a therapy that helps us maintain a good quality of life for patients as we navigate a cancer that can be quite challenging to treat.”

On April 3, 66-year-old Bozena Wojtach of Niles, Ill., became the first patient at Northwestern Medicine to receive the new treatment. During the procedure, interventional radiologists use several small tubes to isolate the liver’s blood supply from the rest of the body before chemotherapy is directly administered to the liver for about 30 minutes. Once the chemotherapy is finished, the separated blood supply in the liver is filtered for an additional half hour before being returned to the patient’s body.

“This process removes more than 80% of the chemotherapy drug, significantly reducing the amount of chemotherapy that reaches other parts of the body,” said Robert Lewandowski, MD, director of interventional oncology at the Lurie Cancer Center at Northwestern Medicine. “While systemic chemotherapy targets widespread disease, this therapy is more effective for patients with the majority of their disease localized to the liver, as it minimizes overall toxicity.”

Originally from Cracow, Poland, Wojtach spent her youth flying planes and skydiving before pursuing a career in nursing. After immigrating to the United States in 1986 with her husband, Wojtach gave birth to twin sons and continued working as a nurse in the Chicago area, caring for cardiology, oncology and pediatric patients until her retirement in 2022.

In 2024, Wojtach began noticing flashing lights in her vision, which prompted a visit to her local optometrist. There, she learned that a mass had developed in her right eye and was referred to Northwestern Medicine ophthalmologist Randy Christopher Bowen, MD, who diagnosed her with uveal melanoma. While proton therapy was successful at treating her eye tumor, scans later revealed the cancer had spread to her liver, which is the most common site of spread for patients with uveal melanoma. If left untreated, liver tumors can continue to grow and may lead to liver failure.

Fortunately, the tumors affected less than half of her liver, making Wojtach a candidate for Hepzato Kit. If needed, patients may receive up to six cycles of the therapy, with treatment administered every six to eight weeks. However, after just two cycles, Wojtach’s tumors were reduced by more than 50 percent.

“I feel energetic and free of the pain and nausea that I saw in many patients receiving standard chemotherapy during my time as an oncology nurse,” said Wojtach. “I feel like I’m healthy – like I have no cancer at all.”

Due to her positive response, Wojtach’s medical team recommends she completes at least four cycles of the treatment. In the future, she hopes to continue traveling, working in her garden and spending time with her husband and adult sons.

“It has taken a big commitment from the health system and a significant team effort to bring this new therapy to patients,” said Dr. Lewandowski. “With collaboration from interventional radiology, medical oncology, anesthesia, perfusion, and many others, we are excited to provide new hope for patients who otherwise have limited options.”

Uveal melanoma is rare, accounting for about 5% of all melanoma cases in the U.S. Up to half of all patients with the eye cancer will develop metastatic disease, which can be life-threatening.

To learn more about Northwestern Medicine, visit nm.org.