Early Detection of Melanoma

The AHA! Team — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 05:23:11 +0000

Georgia M. Beasley, MD, MHSc, via Duke Health – Melanoma can be cured if detected early. Here, Georgia M. Beasley, MD, MHSc, a surgical oncologist at Duke Health, talks about what to look for and how to know if you are at high risk. How to Detect Melanoma Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer, responsible for the majority of all skin cancer deaths. Close to 100,000 new melanomas will be diagnosed this year. Fortunately, these cancers are usually curable if detected early. According to Dr. Beasley, patients diagnosed in the earliest stage of melanoma have over a 90% survival rate at five years, while those diagnosed at the most advanced stage have a 20 to 30% survival rate. Early detection is not always easy. Of all the moles in the United States, only one in 20,000 to 200,000 is a melanoma, so searching for an early-stage melanoma is a lot like looking for a needle in a haystack. The commonly recommended “ABCD” detection technique — looking for moles that are asymmetrical, have an irregular border, have uneven color, or a diameter larger than a pencil eraser — is quite helpful in detecting advanced melanomas, but to catch these cancers earlier, it’s important to take additional steps. Understand Your Risk Profile About half of melanomas occur in just 1 to 5% of the population. The average age of people when it is diagnosed is 65. But melanoma is not uncommon even among those younger than 30, said Dr. Beasley. In fact, it’s one of the most common cancers in young adults, especially young women. High-risk groups include people who have: A personal or family history of melanoma (two or more close relatives who have been diagnosed with invasive melanoma) Dysplastic (atypical) moles Numerous moles (generally more than 50) If you have one or more of these traits, regular skin checks may help save your life. Look Beyond Your Moles Many people are told that they have “pre-cancerous” moles, but this is a poor term: dysplastic (or atypical) moles may never progress to melanoma, and instead, are better considered a risk marker for melanoma. At least half of melanomas appear in normal skin. Look for Moles that Don’t Match Everyone’s moles are different, explained Dr. Beasley, so it’s hard to come up with a blanket description of normal moles versus early melanomas. If you see a new mole that looks different than your other (average) moles — a different color, irregular shape, a more pronounced border — you should have that different mole checked by a doctor. Look for Changes in Your Moles Identifying changing moles is one of the keys to early detection. All moles are new at some point, especially in young adults, so a new or enlarged mole is not necessarily a melanoma. However, if you note a changing mole, it is appropriate to seek medical advice. Don’t Rely on Memory If you have had a previous melanoma, dysplastic moles, or numerous moles, Dr. Beasley recommends asking your doctor about total-body photography. Instead of relying on memory to determine whether a mole has changed or is new, Duke dermatologists offer total-body photography to provide a baseline for comparison at future examinations. Total body photography CDs can be used in the clinic and at home to allow for comparisons. Heed Your Own Concerns If you are concerned about an area on your skin, that is enough reason for your doctor to be concerned as well. Don’t hesitate to ask for a second opinion if needed. To read the original article click here.

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New Study Offers Possible Immunotherapy Breakthrough for Cancer

AHA Publisher — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 07:00:40 +0000

Jon Schiller via Israel21c – For cancer immunotherapy to be most effective, a patient’s immune system must be able to “see” the tumor in question. “Hotspots” on cancer cells’ outer membranes can provide this service. These molecular structures contain mutated peptides called neoantigens that the immune system’s T cells recognize as foreign – the first step in binding to the neoantigens and killing the cancerous cells. But only a handful of neoantigens qualify as hotspots. And they are hard to find because they are presented to the immune system by protein complexes that come in thousands of versions. The Weizmann Institute of Science’s Prof. Yardena Samuels and her PhD student Aviyah Peri led a team using bioinformatics to develop a method for identifying features common to many tumors. This can help develop effective immunotherapy for entire groups of patients. Their findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The scientists applied algorithms to search through international databases of the genomes of thousands of cancer patients. Focusing on melanoma, the main cancer type studied by the Samuels lab, they looked for common mutations presented by common protein complexes. The search produced several neoantigens that could potentially be considered hotspots. Next, the scientists subjected these candidate molecules to laboratory analysis and investigated their interactions with T cells. Using this approach, the scientists identified a hotspot neoantigen derived from an oncogene known as RAS, which is involved in a third of all human cancers and 20% of melanoma cases. They and their colleagues isolated the T cell receptor that can recognize this hotspot neoantigen in melanoma tumors. They then engineered T cells from healthy individuals to express this receptor and incubated them with tumor samples from patients whose tumors displayed this hotspot. The T cells killed only those cells that displayed the neoantigen. “We’ve uncovered a neoantigen that is expressed in thousands of new melanoma cases every year, and we’ve shown that it can be used in these patients to mark tumor cells for immune destruction,” Peri said. “Our study suggests that our newly developed platform can lead to ‘off-the-shelf’ immunotherapies in which T cell receptors that recognize cancer hotspots can be prepared in advance, ready to be applied in groups of patients whose tumors have been shown to harbor these hotspots,” said Samuels. Also participating in the study were the late Prof. Nir Friedman of Weizmann’s Immunology Department, Prof. Masha Y. Niv of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Prof. Steven A. Rosenberg of the US National Cancer Institute, Prof. Cyrille J. Cohen of Bar-Ilan University, Dr. Ansuman T. Satpathy of Stanford University School of Medicine and other researchers. To read the original article click here.

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Early Detection of Melanoma

New Study Offers Possible Immunotherapy Breakthrough for Cancer