Skin Cancer News and Research

Latest Skin Cancer News and Research

Melanin is not only good for you, it also can be bad

Blondes and redheads not only are more susceptible to skin cancer, but the source of their skin and hair pigmentation, melanin, actually magnifies the damaging effects of ultraviolet (UV) rays, according to a study published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

13 Oct 2004

Nanotechnology company pSivida granted European patent

Nanotechnology company pSivida has announced that its UK operating subsidiary pSiMedica Limited has been granted a further patent for BioSiliconTM.

13 Oct 2004

Wound healers cause skin disease

Dutch researcher Manon Franssen has shown that cells which heal the skin following an injury play an important role in the development of the skin disease psoriasis. In people with psoriasis, the skin peels much faster than normal so that it flakes and becomes inflamed.

11 Oct 2004

Half of all Australians still believe a tan is healthy

New research showing half of all Australians still believe a tan is healthy has added to cancer experts’ fears of a prolonged national skin cancer epidemic.

6 Oct 2004

Researchers are studying a vaccine that, in the future, could be the first to treat advanced malignant melanoma

Unlike traditional vaccines, cancer vaccines are not meant to be given to healthy people to prevent cancer. Rather, they are meant to be used in sick patients to strengthen their immune system to better fight the cancer.

4 Oct 2004

Skin cancer rates concern Australian health experts

Victorian Premier Steve Bracks joined The Cancer Council Victoria today to launch the 2004 SunSmart season. Releasing the latest skin cancer rates for Victoria, Professor David Hill, Director of the Cancer Council warned of the human and economic costs to all Victorians if skin cancer rates continue to increase.

30 Sep 2004

Prostate cancer treatment leads to declines in sexual and urinary function

Treatment for prostate cancer leads to significant five-year declines in sexual and urinary function, according to a new study. However, general and other specific health-related quality of life factors, such as bowel function, are not affected.

27 Sep 2004

University of Arizona spin-off investigates DNA damage to human skin

Niadyne, Inc., a Tucson-based spin-off biopharmaceutical company co-founded by two University of Arizona professors, has received a Small Business Innovation Research grant of nearly $750,000 to continue investigating the prevention of DNA damage to human skin

22 Sep 2004

Certain cancers might one day be cured without the use of toxic chemotherapy and radiation

The eradication of brain tumors in mice following treatment with a novel drug suggests that certain cancers might one day be cured without the use of toxic chemotherapy and radiation.

20 Sep 2004

Shade structures are not built effectively

Skin cancer causes more than 1000 deaths in Australia, and costs the health care system over $700 million each year.

14 Sep 2004

Researchers discover that DNA fragments destroy melanoma cells

Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine have discovered that small DNA fragments or oligonucleotides that resemble the telomere (chromosome end), also called T-oligos, can cause human melanoma cells to undergo extensive apoptosis (cell death), while surviving melanoma cells become more differentiated and therefore less aggressive.

1 Sep 2004

PET is a more accurate way to diagnose recurrent melanoma than the present, standard procedures

A new study using positron emission tomography (PET) determined PET is a more accurate way to diagnose recurrent melanoma than the present, standard procedures.

5 Aug 2004

New approach to cancer vaccines may eradicate skin cancer tumors

Mayo Clinic and British researchers have developed a new approach to cancer vaccines that purposely kills healthy skin cells to target the immune system against tumors. The new approach has eradicated skin cancer tumors in mice.

2 Aug 2004

Women with a history of cancer in their family are better off having MRI scans instead of mammograms

New research by Mieke Kriege at the Department of Medical Oncology, Rotterdam Family Cancer Clinic suggests that women with a history of cancer in their family are better off having MRI scans instead of mammogram's.

28 Jul 2004

New cream treatment for common form of skin cancer

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new treatment for some people with a very common form of skin cancer. Imiquimod cream, sold as Aldara, can now be used to treat superficial basal cell carcinoma.

23 Jul 2004

Outdoor activities are exposing us to higher levels of harmful ultraviolet rays than previously thought

The present estimate of UV exposure, the UV index, is based on measuring how much radiation hits a horizontal surface. But this often underestimates how much UV hits a vertical surface when the sun is low in the sky, says Peter Hoeppe, a biometeorologist at Geo Risk Research in Munich, Germany.

22 Jul 2004

3M granted FDA approval for cream to treat superficial basal cell carcinoma

3M announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first prescription therapy in nearly a decade for the treatment of superficial basal cell carcinoma (sBCC), a type of nonmelanoma skin cancer.

16 Jul 2004

Targeted therapeutics capable of preventing or limiting the metastasis of skin cancer

An international team of scientists has identified an important molecular link involved in the spread – or metastasis – of melanoma to other organs such as the lungs.

15 Jul 2004

Important milestone for any cancer therapy that will be useful for treating patients

Mayo Clinic researchers have manipulated a human antibody to induce an anti-tumor response in living mice that consistently curbs - and often cures - malignant melanoma, one of the most lethal forms of skin cancer and the most common cancer of young adults.

15 Jul 2004

Sunscreen to protect the skin's genetic material, or DNA

A new company, DNAcare Systems, is to be formed at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, based on research by skin cancer expert Dr Mark Birch-Machin and colleagues.

8 Jul 2004