Although most survivors of melanoma take precautions to protect their skin from the sun and further occurrences of cancer, data presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) held in Washington, D.C., April 6-10, 2013 revealed that more than a quarter (27%) do not use sunscreen when outside for more than an hour. The same data also shows that more than 2% still use tanning beds.

Commenting on the remarkable data,…

Scientists at the at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) have characterized how the functionality of genetically engineered T cells administered therapeutically to patients with melanoma changed over time. The data, which are published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American…

Scientists at the at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) have characterized how the functionality of genetically engineered T cells administered therapeutically to patients with melanoma changed over time. The data, which are published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American…

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have shown that a new imaging dye, designed and developed at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, is an effective agent in detecting and mapping cancers that have reached the lymph nodes. The diagnostic radiopharmaceutical dye called…

Earlier today researchers released top-line results from the Phase III trial in melanoma, evaluating the efficacy and safety of talimogene laherparepvec (Amgen; T-VEC, originally called OncovexGM-CSF, the trial drug was initially under development by BioVex Inc, Oxford, UK, until it was purchased by Amgen in January 2011 and…

Health experts are urging government regulators to take action to protect the nation's youth by restricting the use of artificial tanning devices, which are linked to an increase in the risk of skin cancer, according to an article published online in the March 18, 2013 edition of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Indoor tanning has grown rapidly over the years with…

New research published online in Clinical Chemistry, the journal of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry AACC, shows that decreased levels of vitamin D may predispose smokers to developing tobacco-related cancer. This study illustrates that simple vitamin D blood tests and supplements have the potential to improve smokers' health.

In the United States alone, cigarette smoking accounts for more deaths annually than…

Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer. If it is recognized and treated early, it is almost always curable, but if it is not, the cancer can advance and spread to other parts of the body, where it becomes hard to treat, disfiguring, debilitating and often life-threatening.

While it is not the most common of the skin cancers, it causes the most deaths. The American Cancer Society estimates that at present, about 123,000 new cases of melanoma in the U.S. are diagnosed…

A study that used a Utah genealogic database and the Utah Cancer Registry to examine the relationship between Parkinson disease and cancer suggests an increased risk of prostate cancer and melanoma in patients with Parkinson disease and their relatives.

According to a report published Online…

Reovirus (Reolysin®; Oncolytics Biotech, Calgary, AB, Canada), a proprietary variant of the Respiratory Enteric Orphan Virus, is a benign, double-stranded RNA human virus with oncolytic properties. In a variety of clinical trials, the virus has shown to selectively kill tumor cells with activated signaling through the RAS pathway.

The RAS protein family members belong to a class of protein called…

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the Society for Surgical Oncology (SSO) earlier today jointly issued their first evidence-based clinical practice guideline on the use of sentinel lymph node biopsy or SLNB to stage patients with newly diagnosed melanoma.…

Late breaking data from a Phase III study presented at the 48th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) shows that the oral investigational drug trametinib (GlaxoSmithKline) delayed tumor growth and extended survival for patients with advanced melanoma who have BRAF mutations, compared with standard chemotherapy. This is the first Phase III trial…

The Canadian regulatory body, pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review or pCODR has made an initial recommendation that includes positive clinical evaluations for the treatment of metastatic melanoma, ipilimumab (Yervoy™, Bristol-Myers Squibb)and vemurafenib (Zelboraf®, Genentech). The drugs are…

The European Commission has approved vemurafenib (Zelboraf^TM, Roche) as a monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with BRAF V600 mutationpositive unresectable or metastatic melanoma. This form of melanoma is the most aggressive form of skin cancer. Vemurafenib is designed to target and inhibit mutated forms of the BRAF protein found in about half of all cases of melanoma.



When melanoma is…

Women with breast cancer who take antiestrogen supplements may be decreasing their risk for melanoma, according to a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.



Christine Bouchardy, M.D., Ph.D., professor at the University of Geneva and head of the Geneva Cancer Registry, and colleagues analyzed data from 7,360 women who had breast cancer between 1980 and 2005. About half (54%) of these women…

Women with breast cancer who take antiestrogen supplements may be decreasing their risk for melanoma, according to a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.



Christine Bouchardy, M.D., Ph.D., professor at the University of Geneva and head of the Geneva Cancer Registry, and colleagues analyzed data from 7,360 women who had breast cancer between 1980 and 2005. About half (54%) of these women…

Researchers at Ohio State University have discovered a hereditary cancer syndrome that predisposes certain people to a melanoma of the eye, along with lung cancer, brain cancer and possibly other types of cancer.



The hereditary cancer syndrome is caused by an inherited mutation in a gene called BAP1, researchers say. The findings suggest that BAP1 mutations cause the disease in a…

HIV-infected patients are at increased risk for cancer as a result of both their impaired immune system and lifestyle factors, such as smoking, according to researchers at Kaiser Permanente.



The study, which appears in the current issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, is among the first to directly compare the…

Researchers have developed a new genetic screening tool that will aid in the investigation of possible treatments for patients with melanoma and the unique genetic mutations that may accompany the disease, according to data presented at the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics, held November 12-16, 2011 in San Francisco, CA, USA.



Heinz-Herbert Fiebig, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of medical oncology at the…

Battling melanoma is tough. Battling a rare and often overlooked melanoma can make the battle even tougher. That's why the Melanoma Research Foundation (MRF) is launching an initiative to give greater voice to patients fighting melanoma that affects the eye.



Ocular melanoma develops in the eye and is the most common eye cancer in adults and the second most common type of melanoma. About 2,000 Americans…