Melanoma Cells News and Research

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Zebrafish model of human melanoma reveals new cancer gene

Looking at the dark stripes on the tiny zebrafish you might not expect that they hold a potentially important clue for discovering a treatment for the deadly skin disease melanoma. Yet melanocytes, the same cells that are are responsible for the pigmentation of zebrafish stripes and for human skin color, are also where melanoma originates.

24 Mar 2011

BUSM scientists identify new biomarker and melanoma treatment target

Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine, in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, have identified a potential new biomarker and therapeutic target for melanoma.

18 Mar 2011

New personalized therapy fools cancer cells into killing themselves

A Wayne State University School of Medicine physician-researcher has developed a personalized therapy to treat a wide range of cancers. The treatment is based on a naturally occurring human enzyme that has been genetically modified to fool cancer cells into killing themselves.

1 Mar 2011

New research: Reovirus infected melanoma cells secrete proteins that can kill cancer

Reoviruses are successfully being used in clinical trials to treat patients with cancer. Not only does the virus cause cancer cells to die, it also forces them to release pro-inflammatory chemokines and cytokines, which in turn causes the patient's immune system to attack the disease.

21 Feb 2011

Photodynamic therapy could be useful in eradicating tumor-associated lymphatic vessels

Tumor cells have several routes that enable them to move from the primary tumor to distant tissues, a process called metastasis. It is metastasis of the primary tumor that kills most cancer patients. One of the least studied routes of metastasis is the lymphatic system. Many tumors produce factors that promote the formation of new lymphatic vessels (lymphangiogenesis).

10 Feb 2011

Scientists discover that skin cancer can spread to lungs through cell blocking activity

CANCER RESEARCH UK-funded scientists have discovered that skin cancer can spread to the lungs when a gene in an important cell communication pathway is blocked. The research is published in Cancer Cell.

6 Jan 2011

Researchers study relationship between MITF, ATF2 in melanoma development

Melanoma is one of the least common types of skin cancer, but it is also the most deadly. Melanocytes (pigment-producing skin cells) lose the genetic regulatory mechanisms that normally limit their number, allowing them to divide and proliferate out of control. One such regulator, called MITF, controls an array of genes that influence melanocyte development, function and survival.

24 Dec 2010

Researchers discover protein that suppresses melanoma progression

In a breakthrough that could lead to new treatments for patients with malignant melanoma, researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered that a particular protein suppresses the progression of melanoma through regulation of an oncogene, or gene responsible for cancer growth. The study is published in the December 23 issue of Nature.

23 Dec 2010

Targeting mutant BRAF can kill cancer cells, but cannot finish off melanoma

This past summer saw a revolution in melanoma therapy. Patients whose melanoma lesions contain a mutation in the BRAF gene were successfully treated with a BRAF-specific inhibitor, PLX4032. Reports of the drug trial described shrinking tumors and improved health. Yet seven months after therapy began the tumors returned and resumed growing. Now, scientists at The Wistar Institute explain why: the tumor learns to signal around the blocked gene by adjusting its molecular wiring.

15 Dec 2010

BioAlliance presents AMEP preclinical, phase I clinical results for melanoma at Electrochemotherapy Meeting

BioAlliance Pharma SA, a company dedicated to the supportive care and treatment of cancer patients, presented preclinical and promising preliminary phase I clinical results with its AMEP biotherapy at the "Electrochemotherapy 1st International Users' Meeting"(Bologna, Italy, November 19-20, 2010).

23 Nov 2010

New theoretical model could develop novel clinical decision making in cancer research

Schonfeld, a University of Illinois at Chicago professor of electrical and computer engineering, is studying gene expression and interactions in ways that are analogous to the workings of electrical or computer networks. He is project director and principal investigator of a four-year, $1.2 million National Institutes of Health grant.

18 Nov 2010

Study finds phenotypic plasticity among melanoma cells

University of Michigan researchers have determined that most types of melanoma cells can form malignant tumors, providing new evidence that the deadliest form of skin cancer does not conform to the increasingly popular cancer stem cell model.

17 Nov 2010

Researchers identify gene linked to melanoma metastasis

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a gene linked to the spread of eye melanoma.

8 Nov 2010

Melanoma drug breakthrough

Two latest drugs useful in melanoma are termed as the biggest breakthrough in the last five decades say cancer experts. These drugs are the first ones to be effective in advanced forms of the cancer.

5 Nov 2010

TRACON to present data on TRC105, TRC102 cancer therapies at EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium

TRACON Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company that develops targeted therapies for oncology and related diseases, announced today that new data on TRC105 and TRC102 will be presented at the 22nd Annual EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Berlin, Germany.

26 Oct 2010

Researchers identify molecular mechanism that regulate metastasis of melanoma cells

The way melanoma cells use the immune system to spread and develop into lung tumors may lead to a therapy to decrease development of these tumors, according to Penn State researchers.

8 Oct 2010

Researchers to develop image analysis techniques for melanoma classification

Melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer varies in size, shape and severity, and although pathologists and researchers often intuitively differentiate between types of melanomas, the variations have never been formally quantified and documented. A project involving RENCI and researchers in the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and the departments of computer science and statistics and operations research aims to change that by using image analysis techniques to improve melanoma classification.

10 Sep 2010

RXR-alpha protein helps to protect pigment cells from invasive melanoma: Research

New research on how skin cancer begins has identified adjacent cancer cells that scientists are calling "co-conspirators" in the genesis of melanoma, in findings that could someday hold the key to predicting, preventing and stopping this hard-to-treat cancer before it spreads.

31 Aug 2010

Promising skin cancer drug in the near horizon

A new drug has been developed to combat a deadly form of skin cancer – melanoma. The drug, PLX4032, was tested on 32 melanoma patients who had a key mutation in their tumors. 26 of these patients responded favorably says the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

30 Aug 2010

Scientists develop new imaging technique to create three-dimensional images of melanoma

Melanoma is one of the less common types of skin cancer but it accounts for the majority of the skin cancer deaths (about 75 percent).The five-year survival rate for early stage melanoma is very high (98 percent), but the rate drops precipitously if the cancer is detected late or there is recurrence.So a great deal rides on the accuracy of the initial surgery, where the goal is to remove as little tissue as possible while obtaining "clean margins" all around the tumor.So far no imaging technique has been up to the task of defining the melanoma's boundaries accurately enough to guide surgery.Instead surgeons tend to cut well beyond the visible margins of the lesion in order to be certain they remove all the malignant tissue.Two scientists at Washington University in St. Louis have developed technologies that together promise to solve this difficult problem.

12 Aug 2010