Melanoma

Melanoma is a form of cancer that begins in melanocytes (cells that make the pigment melanin). It may begin in a mole (skin melanoma), but can also begin in other pigmented tissues, such as in the eye or in the intestines.

What are Melanomas?

The treatment of melanoma may involve surgery, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, or a combination of several treatment techniques. Each of these treatments is outlined below.

Melanoma Symptoms and Cause

What are the Statistics of Melanoma?

Choroidal Melanoma

Malignant Melanoma

Managing Choroidal Melanomas

Melanoma Research

Metastatic Melanoma

How is Melanoma Diagnosed and Treated?

Melanoma Prognosis

Melanoma History

Latest Melanoma News and Research

New AstroID database integrates clinical and genetic data for large-scale cancer studies

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and The Johns Hopkins University have created a novel database structure that allows investigators anywhere to more easily study multiple types of cancer data - including laboratory results, genetic sequencing and imaging data - in one setting.

5 Mar 2026

Are socially isolated people more likely to develop cancer? Study of 350,000 adults explores the risk

A large UK Biobank study of more than 350,000 adults found that social isolation, but not loneliness alone, was associated with a modest increase in overall cancer risk during over 11 years of follow-up. The association was stronger in women and appeared partly linked to socioeconomic disadvantage, unhealthy behaviors, and inflammatory processes.

3 Mar 2026

Inflammatory signals from vesicles increase cancer cell aggressiveness and invasiveness

Pro-inflammatory M1 macrophages involved in immune responses accelerate the progression of melanoma through the extracellular vesicles they secrete, a recent study from the University of Eastern Finland shows. The findings were published in Cell Communication and Signaling.

3 Mar 2026

Blocking growth hormone receptor may improve treatment response in lung cancer

Researchers at Ohio University have discovered what may be a new way to fight lung cancer that is resistant to other treatments.

2 Mar 2026

Protein partnership enhances innate immune sensing of viral RNA

Study reveals how two proteins cooperate in a key early step of antiviral detection, as reported by researchers at Science Tokyo.

27 Feb 2026

Sunscreen costs vary widely despite identical SPF protection

UCSF researchers calculated the annual cost of using sunscreens and found huge variations, depending on product price and how much skin a person exposes to the sun.

26 Feb 2026

Ochsner MD Anderson Cancer Center delivers Louisiana’s first TIL therapy for melanoma

Ochsner MD Anderson Cancer Center at The Gayle and Tom Benson Cancer Center in New Orleans announces a milestone in advanced cancer treatment, as the first institution in Louisiana to provide an adult patient with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) therapy for advanced melanoma.

23 Feb 2026

Skin of color seminar improves medical students’ diagnosis skills

A seminar improved medical students' ability to identify skin conditions in darker skin tones, addressing diagnostic gaps in diverse patient populations.

23 Feb 2026

Discovery offers hope for reducing immune-related heart risks in cancer patients

For many people diagnosed with cancer, treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has dramatically extended lives.

20 Feb 2026

Genetic ancestry shapes acral melanoma biology and outcomes

Genetic ancestry may play a key role in how acral melanoma, a rare and aggressive type of skin cancer, develops and behaves, with important implications for diagnosis and treatment, according to researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and their collaborators.

18 Feb 2026

Cornell study finds existing drug could boost liver cancer immunotherapy

Immunotherapy – which activates the body's own immune system to kill cancer cells – has not worked well against a rare and fatal liver cancer, but a new Cornell University study finds an existing FDA-approved drug may allow the immunotherapy to fight the cancer as intended, opening the door to a potential treatment.

17 Feb 2026

Chronic inflammation shapes cancer progression and immunotherapy response

Chronic inflammation is both a driver and suppressor of cancer depending on context. Key players-NF-κB, IL-6, STAT3, TAMs, MDSCs, and Tregs-orchestrate a tumor-permissive microenvironment.

16 Feb 2026

Nanovaccine design boosts immune attack on HPV tumors

Throughout the past decade, Northwestern University scientists have uncovered a striking principle of vaccine design: Performance depends not only on vaccine components but also on vaccine structure.

11 Feb 2026

Transcription factor HOXD13 drives melanoma growth and immune evasion

A molecule that helps regulate gene activity has also been shown to drive skin cancer growth and tumors' ability to evade attack by the body's immune system, a new study shows.

11 Feb 2026

New nanoparticles enable the removal of melanoma tumors with low-power laser

Researchers at Oregon State University have developed and tested in a mouse model a new type of nanoparticle that enables the removal of melanoma tumors with a low-power laser.

10 Feb 2026

Tumor-targeted chimeric drug increases efficacy and limits side effects

Wistar scientists have combined a promising cancer therapy with a molecule that targets tumors to treat cancer more effectively.

7 Feb 2026

Common human fungus found to worsen melanoma aggressiveness

Cancer is one of the causes responsible for the most deaths worldwide; in 2020, for example, it resulted in ten million deaths. It has been estimated that micro-organism infections caused between 13-18% of these cases.

3 Feb 2026

Treating desmoplastic melanoma with immunotherapy before surgery can shrink or eliminate tumors

New results from a clinical trial co-led by UCLA investigators demonstrate how treating desmoplastic melanoma, a rare and aggressive skin cancer, with immunotherapy before surgery can dramatically shrink or even eliminate tumors, sparing patients from more aggressive surgeries and preserving their quality of life.

29 Jan 2026

Poop pills could help cancer patients respond to immunotherapy while reducing toxic side effects

Fecal microbiota transplants (FMT), can dramatically improve cancer treatment, suggest two groundbreaking studies published in the prestigious Nature Medicine journal.

28 Jan 2026

Cancer vaccines enter a new era of personalized immunotherapy

A new comprehensive review from researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai details how decades of cancer vaccine research are converging into a new era of more precise, personalized, and effective immunotherapies, particularly when combined with other cancer treatments.

22 Jan 2026