With so much in the news these days about skin cancer, what does it all mean?
While the sky isn’t falling in quite yet, there are major concerns about how the sunlight is affecting our skin and causing increasing numbers of serious and potentially fatal skin cancers. On the other hand, we also read about how we’re not getting enough sunlight and we’re becoming Vitamin D deficient.
Moderation is absolutely the key in most things. By taking in bits of sunshine to satisfy our vitamin D needs, we’re not usually exposing ourselves to enough sunlight to have to worry about melanoma (skin …read more

Although people who love to use tanning beds and the beds’ businesses will say otherwise, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that the medical community fears the effects of the tanning beds and booths.
They have sounded warnings in the past about the use of tanning beds and booths, but they are still popular among many, particularly the younger adults and teens. The tanning done by this method allows strong ultraviolet rays to hit the skin and cause damage. This damage has a high chance of developing into skin cancer years down the road.
Researchers looked at 20 different studies and, using those study …read more

I’ve long had issues with medical shows presenting fair and truthful information. I know the shows are meant for entertainment and I take a lot of their stuff with a grain of salt – such as their usual pathetic portrayal of nurses in the real world. But when they misrepresent health issues, that bothers me a lot.
A couple of months ago, the popular television show House had a bad (in my opinion) plot line that showed a man with “locked in syndrome” diagnosed as brain dead and the emergency room physician wanted to take his heart for donation – something …read more

Republican party presidential candidate John McCain is a survivor of melanoma –  a deadly form of skin cancer.
Earlier this week, a spot in his right cheek was removed as part of a routine check-up. Following biopsy results have showed that McCain is cancer-free.
Presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who has a history of dangerous melanomas, had a spot of skin removed from his face today, his campaign said.
The patch of skin was removed from McCain’s right cheek during a routine checkup in Arizona, the candidate said. In 2000, an invasive melanoma was removed from the senator’s left temple.
McCain denied there …read more

Melanoma – a skin cancer – when on scalp and the neck are more deadly. Such were the findings of a team from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).
Researchers analyzed 51,704 melanoma cases in the United States and found that patients with scalp or neck melanomas died at 1.84 times the rate of patients with melanoma elsewhere on the body, including the face or ears.
The five-year survival rate for patients with scalp-neck melanomas was 83 percent, compared with 92 percent for patients with melanomas at other sites. The 10-year survival rate was 76 percent for scalp-neck melanomas and …read more

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) – commonly responsible in the regulation of blood pressure and a common therapeutic target for hypertension – has now been found to provide protection from tumor growth when strongly expressed in immune cells.
When injected with aggressive melanoma cells, normal mice developed large melanoma tumors whereas ACE 10/10 mice developed only very small tumors.
The resistance of ACE 10/10 mice to melanoma growth was confirmed using several different melanoma cell lines and by using different strains of mice expressing high levels of ACE in macrophages.
Interestingly, the small tumors of ACE 10/10 mice contained significantly higher numbers of white blood …read more

Melanoma – the most serious form of skin cancer – is described as black or black-blue, ugly-looking, abnormal mole-like shape.
As long as it is diagnosed and treated early, it can still be controlled easily as long as the cancer cells have not grown downward to the skin surface yet for it to invade healthy tissues.
However, even if melanoma has already been taken out, there is a chance that it will recur sometime in the patient’s life.
According to John Kirkwood, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and director of the Melanoma Center at UPCI:
“Melanoma patients …read more

The Phase 2b study in metastatic melanoma of Synta Pharmaceuticals Corp. (Nasdaq: SNTA)’s STA-4783, revealed positive data.
The said Phase 2b study was a randomized, controlled trial in patients with Stage IV metastatic melanoma where STA-4783 plus paclitaxel doubled progression-free survival (PFS), as compared to paclitaxel alone.
Steven O’Day, MD, Chief of Research and Director of Melanoma at The Angeles Clinic and Research Institute in Los Angeles and Principal Investigator for the study, stated:
“These positive Phase 2b results in metastatic melanoma, a devastating cancer with an extremely poor prognosis and limited treatment options, are very encouraging. Metastatic melanoma has proven resistant to …read more