San Francisco – Pilots and cabin crew have about twice the incidence of melanoma – the most serious type of skin cancer – compared to the general population, a recent study indicates.

This article has been withdrawn by the authors. We discovered an error after this manuscript was published as a Paper in Press. Specifically, we learned that the structures of glycans presented for the PD-L1 peptide were drawn and labeled incorrectly. We wish to withdraw this article and submit a corrected version for review.

Title: In Early Trial, Targeted Therapy Fights Advanced Melanoma
Category: Health News
Created: 8/25/2010 6:10:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/26/2010 12:00:00 AM

Title: New Drug May Treat Advanced Melanoma
Category: Health News
Created: 8/26/2010 11:04:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/26/2010 11:04:24 AM

Title: Could a Laser Skin Test Someday Replace Biopsy to Spot Melanoma?
Category: Health News
Created: 8/21/2015 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/24/2015 12:00:00 AM

Title: Moles Not Most Likely Spot for Melanomas
Category: Health News
Created: 8/29/2017 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/29/2017 12:00:00 AM

Title: Spotting the Signs of Deadly Melanoma Skin Cancers
Category: Health News
Created: 8/22/2021 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/23/2021 12:00:00 AM

Video gallery Spot Skinchecker

Eva Longoria :30 English

IBM Research has announced a research agreement with MoleMap New Zealand to help further advance the identification of melanoma using cognitive technology. It builds on planned research with Melanoma Institute Australia. IBM Research plans to analyse dermatological images of skin lesions to help identify specific clinical patterns in the early stages of melanoma. The New Zealand and Australian research aims to help reduce unnecessary biopsies and help clinicians more accurately understand skin cancer, which could help to improve patient care.

IBM Research in Australia has announced plans to undertake research with Melanoma Institute Australia to help further advance the identification of melanoma using cognitive technology. This planned research builds on IBM’s existing research agreement with Molemap, which uses advanced visual analytics to analyse more than 40,000 data sets including images and text. IBM Research plans to analyse dermatological images of skin lesions to help identify specific clinical patterns in the early stages of melanoma1. The Australian research aims to help reduce unnecessary biopsies and help clinicians more accurately understand skin cancer, which could help to improve patient care.

(American Association for Cancer Research) Combining intratumoral electroporation of interleukin-12 (IL-12) DNA (tavokinogene telseplasmid, or TAVO) with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) led to clinical responses in patients with immunologically quiescent advanced melanoma, according to results from a phase II trial.

The prediction of metastatic properties from molecular analyses still poses a major challenge. Here we aimed at the classification of metastasis-related cell properties by proteome profiling making use of cutaneous and brain-metastasizing variants from single melanomas sharing the same genetic ancestry. Previous experiments demonstrated that cultured cells derived from these xenografted variants maintain a stable phenotype associated with a differential metastatic behavior: The brain metastasizing variants produce more spontaneous micro-metastases than the corresponding cutaneous variants. Four corresponding pairs of cutaneous and metastatic cells were obtained from four individual patients, resulting in eight cell-lines presently investigated. Label free proteome profiling revealed significant differences between corresponding pairs of cutaneous and cerebellar metastases from the same patient. Indeed, each brain metastasizing variant expressed several apparently metastasis-associated proteomic alterations as compared with the corresponding cutaneous variant. Among the differentially expressed proteins we identified cell adhesion molecules, immune regulators, epithelial to mesenchymal transition markers, stem cell markers, redox regulators and cytokines. Similar results were observed regarding eicosanoids, considered relevant for metastasis, such as PGE2 and 12-HETE. Multiparametric morphological analysis of cells also revealed no characteristic alterations associated with the cutaneous and brain metastasis variants. However, no correct classification regarding metastatic potential was yet possible with the present data. We thus concluded that molecular profiling is able to classify cells according to known functional categories but is not yet able to predict relevant cell properties emerging from networks consisting of many interconnected molecules. The presently observed broad diversity of molecular patterns, irrespective of restricting to one tumor type and two main classes of metastasis, highlights the important need to develop meta-analysis strategies to predict cell properties from molecular profiling data. Such base knowledge will greatly support future individualized precision medicine approaches.

This article has been withdrawn by the authors. We discovered an error after this manuscript was published as a Paper in Press. Specifically, we learned that the structures of glycans presented for the PD-L1 peptide were drawn and labeled incorrectly. We wish to withdraw this article and submit a corrected version for review.

The incidence of childhood and adolescent melanoma has been significantly increasing up to 2004. Risk factors (fair skin, light-colored hair/eyes, female gender, presence of nevi, family history, increased number of sunburns, and exposure to UV radiation) are associated with melanoma.

This study describes incidence trends of melanoma diagnosed between the ages of 0 and 19 years and from 1973 through 2009 by gender, stage and age at diagnosis, primary site, and exposure to UV radiation. (Read the full article)

Title: Women More Likely to Survive Melanoma Than Men: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 5/1/2012 2:05:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 5/2/2012 12:00:00 AM

The emergence of drug resistance is a major obstacle for the success of targeted therapy in melanoma. Additionally, conventional chemotherapy has not been effective as drug-resistant cells escape lethal DNA damage effects by inducing growth arrest commonly referred to as cellular dormancy. We present a therapeutic strategy termed "targeted chemotherapy" by depleting protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) or its inhibition using a small molecule inhibitor (1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione [phendione]) in drug-resistant melanoma. Targeted chemotherapy induces the DNA damage response without causing DNA breaks or allowing cellular dormancy. Phendione treatment reduces tumor growth of BRAF^V600E-driven melanoma patient-derived xenografts (PDX) and diminishes growth of NRAS^Q61R-driven melanoma, a cancer with no effective therapy. Remarkably, phendione treatment inhibits the acquisition of resistance to BRAF inhibition in BRAF^V600E PDX highlighting its effectiveness in combating the advent of drug resistance.

Purpose:

Unleashing the immune system by PD-1 and/or CTLA-4 blockade can cause severe immune-related toxicity necessitating immunosuppressive treatment. Whether immunosuppression for toxicity impacts survival is largely unknown.

Purpose:

The development of leptomeningeal melanoma metastases (LMM) is a rare and devastating complication of the late-stage disease, for which no effective treatments exist. Here, we performed a multi-omics analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients with LMM to determine how the leptomeningeal microenvironment shapes the biology and therapeutic responses of melanoma cells.

BRAF^V600 mutations occur in a wide range of tumor types, and RAF inhibition has become standard in several of these cancers. Despite this progress, BRAF^V600 mutations have historically been considered a clear demonstration of tumor lineage context–dependent oncogene addiction, based predominantly on the insensitivity to RAF inhibition in colorectal cancer. However, the true broader activity of RAF inhibition pan-cancer remains incompletely understood. To address this, we conducted a multicohort "basket" study of the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib in non-melanoma BRAF^V600 mutation–positive solid tumors. In total, 172 patients with 26 unique cancer types were treated, achieving an overall response rate of 33% and median duration of response of 13 months. Responses were observed in 13 unique cancer types, including historically treatment-refractory tumor types such as cholangiocarcinoma, sarcoma, glioma, neuroendocrine carcinoma, and salivary gland carcinomas. Collectively, these data demonstrate that single-agent BRAF inhibition has broader clinical activity than previously recognized.

Video gallery Spot Skinchecker

Eva Longoria :30 English

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT -Rob Lindsay, 51, from Brisbane, noticed a small pink patch on the top of his right ear in September 2019 but claims his GP told him it was 'nothing serious'.

Leah Debono, from NSW, lost her battle with the aggressive skin cancer in January this year - three months after her dream wedding to 'soulmate' Ben Debono.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT - The 37-year-old Perth father had a 40cm chunk of his neck gauged out (pictured) in an effort to remove deadly melanoma.

She's the glamorous wife of AFL star Marc Murphy. But on Tuesday, Jessie Murphy revealed she had a rare eye growth and two melanomas removed in recent years.

This Medical News story examines the question of whether some melanomas might be better left undetected.

Interview with Caroline C. Kim, MD, author of Risk of Subsequent Cutaneous Melanoma in Moderately Dysplastic Nevi Excisionally Biopsied but With Positive Histologic Margins

Interview with Ivo Abraham, PhD, author of Economic Evaluation of Talimogene Laherparepvec Plus Ipilimumab Combination Therapy vs Ipilimumab Monotherapy in Patients With Advanced Unresectable Melanoma

Interview with Katy J.L. Bell, PhD, author of Patients’ Views About Skin Self-examination After Treatment for Localized Melanoma

Interview with Jennifer Gardner, MD, and Deepti Gupta, MD, authors of Age-Specific Incidence of Melanoma in the United States

Interview with June K. Robinson, MD, author of Prevention of Melanoma With Regular Sunscreen Use

Interview with Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, author of Association of Pembrolizumab With Tumor Response and Survival Among Patients With Advanced Melanoma

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