Melanoma Skin Cancer News

Black Americans with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, wait longer for surgery than white patients, a new study finds.

Chemical sunscreens offer the best protection and beat out those with mineral or natural ingredients such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, a new review from Consumer Reports finds.

But bereaved people with the most serious form of skin cancer were 17% more likely to die from it than others.

Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston analyzed data culled from national surveys conducted from 2014 to 2018 and found that skin cancer rates were 8.1% among gay men, 8.4% among bisexual men, and 6.7% among heterosexual men.

States with the highest UV-attributable incidence rates among all residents were: Utah, Delaware, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oregon, Georgia, Washington and Montana.

Getting a second opinion from a pathologist specially trained in skin lesions -- a dermatopathologist -- yields the most accurate results, the new study found.

Researchers found that the incidence of head and neck melanoma rose nearly 4% a year from 1995 to 2001, and 1.2% a year from 2001 to 2014 in children and young adults.

The study of around 125,000 Americans found that people with the highest intake of vitamin A lowered their risk of squamous cell skin cancer by around 15%

The researchers have been developing a laser-based system designed to screen patients' blood from the outside -- spotting tumor cells as they pass through veins in the arm and eliminating the need for a blood draw.

Overall, about seven out of 10 sunscreen recipes failed to adequately protect skin from dangerous ultraviolet (UV) rays, the study authors found.

As melanoma cases continue to rise sharply, some dermatologists question whether screening people without symptoms has resulted in overdiagnosing melanoma, bringing unnecessary anxiety and treatments.

Experts are quick to say the known risk from the sun's rays is greater than the potential risk posed by these chemicals. Keep using your sunscreen.

The rankings include sections for best sprays, sticks and lip balms as well as those products considered safe for coral reefs.

A two-ointment combo used to clear crusty skin growths known as actinic keratosis also has been found to greatly reduce the odds for squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs), the second most common form of skin cancer.

New research suggests that a diet that's full of fiber appears to lead to more diverse intestinal bacteria (microbiome). In turn, a thriving gut microbiome is linked to a stronger response to an immune therapy for the aggressive skin cancer.

Keytruda is the drug responsible for the remission of former President Jimmy Carter's cancer in 2015. Carter, then 90, had melanoma that spread to his brain and liver. Treatment with Keytruda appears to have cured him.

In a study of more than 700 melanoma patients in the United Kingdom, smokers were 40 percent less likely to survive melanoma than people who hadn't smoked for at least 10 years before their diagnosis.

Powered by the sun while designed to measure its rays, the patch automatically transmits sun readings to a user's smartphone. It works wet or dry, is fully reusable, and weighs next to nothing.

Melanoma death rates were higher for men than for women, according to an analysis of World Health Organization data from 33 countries between 1985 and 2015.

Contrary to the usual advice, a new study has found that, unless applied very heavily, skin creams did not raise the radiation dose to the skin during cancer treatment.

Two cancer researchers -- James P. Allison, PhD, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and Tasuku Honjo, MD, PhD, of Kyoto University in Japa-- received the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering how the immune system can be harnessed to attack tumor cells, a finding that led to the development of immunotherapy drugs.

Experts said the findings represent another step forward against advanced melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Once melanoma spreads to distant sites in the body, the prognosis has traditionally been grim. When it infiltrates the brain, the typical life expectancy has hovered around four to five months.

On a hunch, a doctor injected the Gardasil, the HPV vaccine, directly into the tumors of a woman with advanced skin cancer. The tumors disappeared. Nobody thinks it should be standard treatment, but it will spur more testing.

A therapy that harnesses the body’s immune system to target and destroy cancer cells has been found to help people with melanoma that has spread to the brain.

The new study included just over 200 college students. The researchers  enlisted a computer program called "APRIL Age Progression Software," which was developed over the course of a five-year facial analysis involving 7,000 people representing various races, ages and lifestyles.