Abstract: The mortality rate of melanoma is high. Chemotherapy became the main treatment during the past years besides traditional surgical excision and radiotherapy.In recent years, with the in-depth study of the molecular mechanism of the occurrence and development of melanoma, new treatment methods and medicines basing on the target therapy and immune therapy have emerged constantly. At present, in addition to the drugs that have been used in clinical treatment, some of the drugs that are being approved for clinical research and the potential drugs which are still in basic research show good application prospects. In this paper, the molecular mechanism and therapeutic effect of the representative drugs or potential drugs in the treatment of melanoma were reviewed.