Skin Cancer & Melanoma

The UV radiation resistance-associated tumor suppressor gene coordinates DNA repair and might predict skin cancer risk, according to research published in the journal Molecular Cell.

It now turns out that Bim, a downstream signaling molecule of the PD-1 pathway, may hold the clue to which patients may be successful on immunotherapy for metastatic melanoma.

Adding total body irradiation to chemotherapy prior to the adoptive cell transfer of TILs had no effect on tumor regression in patients with metastatic melanoma.

Treatment with the anti–PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab yielded good long-term survival outcomes in a phase Ib trial of patients with advanced melanoma.

Through the emergence of new immunotherapies, treatment of melanoma is undergoing a long-awaited revolution. Ongoing research will clarify the outlines of the place that intralesional therapies will occupy in the therapeutic armamentarium in the years ahead.

Perhaps the greatest attraction and chief benefit of intratumoral therapies is their ability to synergize with systemic checkpoint therapies and accelerate the development of a lymphoid infiltrate and perhaps secondary lymphoid structures in vivo, which in turn can result in systemic mobilization of a T-cell response: the local injection–global effect model.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) may provide an unlimited number of phenotypically defined, functional and expandable autologous antigen-specific T cells with the characteristics needed to combat cancer.

A recent trial found no survival difference in patients with melanoma with a positive sentinel lymph node biopsy who underwent complete lymph node dissection compared with those who did not undergo dissection. However, the trial failed to achieve the required number of events and is, therefore, underpowered.

A 37-year old man presents with a bluish lesion in the right arm. After further assessment, a biopsy is performed. What is your diagnosis?

Patients with metastatic Merkel cell carcinoma treated with pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck) as a first-line therapy had durable responses in a phase II clinical trial.

More than one-third of patients with advanced melanoma were still alive 5 years after starting treatment with the anti-PD-1 immunotherapy nivolumab, according to long-term phase I data.

A new study has shown that algorithms of dermoscopic criteria used to detect melanoma had only modest levels of accuracy and lacked interobserver agreement among a group of regular dermoscopy users.

Researchers at the University of Colorado Cancer have created a new tool that will help oncologists match the right therapy to cancer type based on the patient's genetic data.

People who are carriers of two variants of MC1R, a gene that regulates pigmentation, were at increased risk for melanoma regardless of previous UV radiation exposure.

In patients with melanoma, lower vitamin D levels were associated with poorer survival outcomes, according to a prospective study, independent of C-reactive protein levels.

The number of moles, or nevi, a patient had was not related to the likelihood that they had melanoma, according to the results of a new study.

A 90-year-old woman presents with a lesion in the right forearm. After further assessment, a biopsy is performed. What is your diagnosis?

The combination of TriMixDC-MEL and ipilimumab produced durable tumor responses in patients with pretreated advanced melanoma, according to a phase II study.

In light of the recent announcement by Vice President Joe Biden to infuse the US cancer research program with $1 billion, a so-called “Moon Shot” program, we are speaking today with Giulio Draetta, a clinician and cancer researcher at MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas in Houston, who leads that center’s Moon Shots program.

Adjuvant high-dose interferon alfa-2b did not improve survival in melanoma patients with single tumor–positive lymph nodes found with sentinel lymph node biopsy.

A median overall survival of longer than 2 years was achieved in a group of patients with metastatic melanoma assigned to treatment with the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib.

Women younger than 40 may be more likely to frequent indoor tanning, and those who do are between two and six times more likely to develop melanoma, according to a new study.

Long-term study results show that a wider surgical margin for cutaneous melanomas greater than 2-mm thick improved melanoma-specific survival vs a 1-cm margin.

In this review, we discuss current management strategies, as well as future directions, for the management of uveal and conjunctival melanoma.

There has been rapid progress in the treatment of metastasis associated with cutaneous melanoma, including impressive results achieved with targeted molecular therapies and immunotherapies, and it is possible (but still unproven) that patients with metastasis from conjunctival and eyelid melanomas may benefit from these new therapies.

The FDA recently expanded its approval of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to include the initial treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma.

Could a new imaging technique that is able to detect the distant spread of melanoma to the lymph nodes help patients avoid potentially risky surgery?

A 32-year-old woman presents with a cutaneous nodule and a biopsy is performed. What is your diagnosis?

The combination of the attenuated oncolytic virus talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) and the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab shows activity and is well-tolerated by advanced melanoma patients.

A combination of cobimetinib and vemurafenib prolongs overall survival in melanoma patients with BRAF V600 mutations.