Duo new-fangled medicines extend the lives of advanced melanoma sufferers. The disease is one of the most lethal types of skin cancer & infamously tricky in treating, let alone curing. Vemurafenib is the foremost therapy which slows down a gene mutation which fifty percent of all melanoma cancer sufferers harbor, though it hasn’t yet received approval by the United Stated FDA. Yervoy or ipilumumab is an immune system therapy which garnered the FDA acceptance three months ago & is the foremost novel medicine approved for melanoma cancer in thirteen years. Presentation of studies on the duo medicines was done in the yearly meet of the ASCO, Chicago & even printed concurrently on line in the journal ‘New England Journal of Medicine’. Helming the 1st trial, Doctor P. Chapman from  [...]

Investigators from Johns Hopkins have come up with a novel, non-invasive infrared system that is capable of scanning and helpful to doctors for ascertaining if pigmented skin growths are non-malignant moles or fatal melanoma. The sample system functions by checking for the minute temperature variations in-between normal tissues and a developing tumor. The investigators have commenced a small-scale experiment studying fifty patients to help ascertain the specificity and sensitivity of the apparatus in assessing melanoma and pre-malignant lesions. Additional patient assessments and fine-tuning of the equipment are required, however in case the device functions as envisaged, it could prove immensely beneficial for doctors in addressing a grave health issue. An estimate of over sixty-eight thousand  [...]

Anorectal Melanoma is a rare form of cancer that affects the anus and at times the rectum. Melanoma is a cancer developing from cells known as melanocytes. Melanocytes are responsible for melanin pigment production that gives colour to the skin. Such cells are present all over the body, inclusive of the skin, hair and in the cells that line the interior organs like the anus or rectum. The third prevalent location for melanoma subsequent to the skin and eye is the anorectal area. But, it is still an atypical kind of cancer, constituting lesser than 1 in 100, i.e., one percent of all melanomas and in between 1-2% in 100 of all the anorectal cancers. Anorectal melanoma could affect many parts of the body like the rectum, anal canal – the connection between the anus and the rectum and even affects  [...]

Scientists have reported that a drug in its investigational phase seems to radically and swiftly shrivel lethal skin cancer tumors. The novel pill –dubbed PLX4032 was observed to contract tumors in seventeen out of twenty-seven patients having advanced stage melanoma that were administered the pill. In the case of 2 of those patients, there was total disappearance of the tumors. The MD of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York stated that the outcome has been exceptional. He explicated that in one patient who had undergone the prior-to and subsequent imaging scans, there was complete healing of the tumor. He mentioned that this was the first instance he had observed anything as spectacular as this. Chapman further added how the signs of the tumors fading away in a span of 2 weeks  [...]