May 10, 2006, 0:06 AM CT

Summer Sun Safety

Fifty years of medical studies show that sun exposure is a primary component in the development of melanoma, the most serious and deadly type of skin cancer, report leading dermatologists in the April 2006 issue of Dermatology Surgery.

"Though genetics may play a role in the development of some melanomas, there's overwhelming evidence that shows sun exposure adversely affects patients both with and without genetic predisposition to melanoma," said Elisabeth K. Shim, M.D., an Associate Clinical Professor of Dermatology at Keck USC Medical School of Medicine in Los Angeles, CA.

It's not clear what pattern of sun exposure causes melanoma or whether it's short, intense intermittent or cumulative. Further more, it's not clear if ultraviolet B (UVB), ultraviolet A (UVA) rays, or both are responsible for causing melanoma. "Regardless, the sun acts as an initiating and promoting agent in causing melanoma, and causes immunosuppression," noted Dr. Shim.

With summer quickly approaching, it's necessary to protect yourself by using sunscreen and sun protective measures to prevent melanoma, and other skin cancers, despite current controversy.........

Posted by: George      Permalink         Source

April 20, 2006, 8:59 PM CT

Inducing Melanoma for Cancer Vaccine

Cancer vaccines are being investigated in early-phase clinical trials around the world, with a number of of those trials recruiting patients with melanoma. Eventhough tumor regressions have been seen in 10% to 20% of patients with metastatic melanoma, the great promise of cancer vaccines - controlling tumor growth and cancer spread without serious side-effects - remains as yet unrealized. This could be set to change with the publication of a new mouse model technology in Cancer Research, the journal of the American Association of Cancer Research, from a multi-national team led by researchers at the Brussels Branch of the international Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR).

"Melanoma has been a focus of cancer vaccine development because a number of melanoma-specific vaccine targets, so-called 'cancer antigens', have been defined," says the study's senior author, LICR's Dr. Benoit Van den Eynde. "However, we have a limited understanding of how most, but not all, melanomas evade an immune system that has been primed to detect and destroy cancer cells carrying one of these defined cancer antigens".

As per Dr. Van den Eynde, this is due in part to the lack of appropriate animal models in which detailed immunological analyses can be performed before and after vaccination. "The models we use to investigate cancer vaccines at the preclinical level either have a defined cancer antigen in a transplanted tumor, or they have an 'original' tumor that doesn't have a defined antigen. However, in human clinical studies, we have original tumors with defined antigens. So there has been a need for a mouse model that more closely follows the human model."........

Posted by: Janet      Permalink         Source

April 17, 2006, 10:46 PM CT

Recurrent Melanoma May Be More Common

Approximately 8 percent of patients with melanoma skin cancer may develop an additional melanoma within two years of their initial diagnosis, and those with atypical moles appear to be at higher risk, as per an article in the recent issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Cutaneous (skin) melanoma begins in cells known as melanocytes, which produce the pigment that gives skin its color. Prior studies have evaluated the recurrence of melanoma among patients already diagnosed with the disease; most have estimated that less than 4 percent of them will develop additional tumors in the year following diagnosis, as per background information in the article.

Linda Titus-Ernstoff, Ph.D., Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, N.H., and his colleagues assessed the frequency of and risk factors for recurring cancer among 354 New Hampshire residents with a first diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma. Participants completed a 40-minute telephone interview, during which they answered questions about medical history, demographics, eye and hair color, sun exposure and whether their skin tanned, burned or freckled in the sun. They then underwent a skin examination, during which a doctor identified and catalogued non-malignant and atypical moles. Atypical moles have at least three of the following features: a diameter larger than 5 millimeters, redness, an irregular or ill-defined border, a variety of colors or a portion that is flat.........

Posted by: George      Permalink         Source

April 17, 2006, 10:43 PM CT

Tanning Ads In High School Newspapers

A small study found that nearly half of high schools in the Denver area contained tanning advertisements in their newspapers, as per an article in the recent issue of Archives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

The ultraviolet (UV) radiation used in tanning parlors is a classified carcinogen, as per background information in the article. As tanning has become more popular among teen girls, the incidence of skin cancer has increased among young women. The World Health Organization recommends that individuals younger than age 18 not use UV tanning devices, but there is no restriction on advertising such devices to youth in the United States.

Scott Freeman, M.D., University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Aurora, and his colleagues examined the frequency of tanning advertisements in 131 newspapers from 23 public high schools in three Colorado counties. All of the papers were published between 2001 and 2005, most usually in 2004.

Tanning advertisements were found in newspapers from 11 (48 percent) of the 23 schools. Eighteen separate establishments placed the 40 tanning advertisements, 15 of which offered unlimited tanning for periods of up to four months. Nearly half (19) of the ads mentioned discounts requiring student identification or labeled as "prom specials," while two ads (5 percent) mentioned parental consent or accompaniment.........

Posted by: George      Permalink         Source

April 6, 2006, 11:04 PM CT

All About Healing Honey

Substantial evidence demonstrates that honey, one of the oldest healing remedies known to medicine, produces effective results when used as a wound dressing. A review article in the most recent issue of SAGE Publications' International Journal of Lower Extremity Wounds summarizes the data.

Researchers performed 22 trials involving 2,062 patients treated with honey, as well as an additional 16 trials that were performed on experimental animals. Honey was found to be beneficial as a wound dressing in the following ways:.

• Honey's antibacterial quality not only rapidly clears existing infection, it protects wounds from additional infection
• Honey debrides wounds and removes malodor
• Honey's anti-inflammatory activity reduces edema and minimizes scarring
• Honey stimulates growth of granulation and epithelial tissues to speed healing
• The review article was written by Dr. P.C. Molan of New Zealand's University Waikato. He noted that, eventhough the a number of randomized controlled clinical trials strongly support the use the honey in wound care; the trials may not have been double-blind. Of course, double blind testing would be difficult to achieve because honey is a very recognizable substance.

Molan concludes, "the barrier to using honey that has existed for a number of clinicians who have been constrained to using only licensed products has been removed now that honey is available in the form of various sterile products licensed for use in wound care. Clinicians should check the evidence that exists to support the use of honey."........

Posted by: George      Permalink         Source

April 4, 2006, 9:23 PM CT

Lapatinib In The Treatment Of Breast Cancer

Based on the unanimous recommendation of an Independent Data Monitoring Committee (IDMC), GlaxoSmithKline announced that it has halted enrollment in its Phase III clinical trial evaluating the combination of Tykerb (lapatinib ditosylate) and capecitabine (Xeloda(R)) versus capecitabine alone.

The trial evaluated women with refractory advanced or metastatic breast cancer who have documented ErbB2 (HER2) overexpression and whose disease progressed following treatment with trastuzumab (Herceptin(R)) as well as other cancer therapies. A pre-planned interim analysis of 321 patients in the study yielded statistically significant results, exceeding the primary endpoint.

According to the study protocol, the pre-planned interim analysis was reviewed by the IDMC, which is comprised of medical oncology experts and a statistician. The IDMC unanimously recommended halting enrollment in the study because it exceeded its primary endpoint of time to disease progression, or TTP, for women receiving the combination of Tykerb and capecitabine. The IDMC made their recommendation based on pre-specified stopping rules outlined in their charter. All women currently enrolled in the trial will continue to be followed and those who are receiving capecitabine alone will be offered the option of switching to the combination therapy of capecitabine and Tykerb in consultation with their physician. ........

Posted by: Janet      Permalink         Source

February 27, 2006, 9:27 PM CT

AIDS Rates Alarming In Attijuana, Mexico

A study by scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine indicates that the rate of HIV/AIDS infection in Tijuana, Mexico is increasing, and much higher than had been previously estimated. The findings are based on data compiled by a team of scientists working in San Diego and Mexico to create a population-based model in order to estimate HIV infection rates.

The number of men and women aged 15 to 49 years who are infected with HIV may be as high as one in 125 persons, as per Kimberly C. Brouwer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in UCSD's Division of International Health and Cross-Cultural Medicine and the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. Brouwer's study would be reported in the March 1 issue of The Journal of Urban Health, a bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine.

Located directly south of San Diego California, Tijuana is a city of 1.2 million people located amidst the busiest land border crossing in the world. Data in this study suggest that Tijuana's HIV infection rate may be close to three times higher than Mexico's national average. The United Nations AIDS Program considers an HIV epidemic to advance from a low level to a concentrated epidemic when more than 1% of the population is infected - a figure that Tijuana may soon approach if preventive steps aren't taken, as per researchers.........

Posted by: Mark      Permalink         Source

February 27, 2006, 9:23 PM CT

Reprogramming Malignant Melanoma Cells

Researchers at Northwestern University and the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have reprogrammed cancerous melanoma cells to become normal melanocytes, or pigment cells, a development that may hold promise in treating of one of the deadliest forms of cancer.

A report describing the group's research was reported in the Feb. 27 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that will appear in the March 7 issue of the journal.

The experiments were conducted as a collaboration involving the laboratories of Mary J. C. Hendrix, president and scientific director of the Children's Memorial Research Center, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Paul M. Kulesa, director of Imaging at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Mo.

Hendrix is professor of pediatrics at the Feinberg School and a member of the executive committees of The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

The study demonstrated the ability of cancerous melanoma cells to respond to embryonic environmental cues in a chick model -- in a manner similar to neural crest cells, the cell type from which melanocytes originate -- inducing cancerous cells express genes associated with a normal melanocyte.........

Posted by: Janet      Permalink         Source


December 30, 2005

Melanoma Risk Only Partially Associated With ultraviolet B

Scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have found that the risk of developing melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, is only partially associated with exposure to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation, the rays in sunlight that increase in summer and cause sunburn.

The report in the Dec. 21 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute also indicates that only nonmelanoma skin cancers (i.e. basal and squamous cell carcinoma) are strongly associated with exposure to UVB radiation.

That does not mean, however, that sunbathing poses a minimal risk of developing melanoma. Scientists say that ultraviolet A (UVA) radiation, the rays in sunlight that reach the deeper layers of skin and are associated with signs of aging, can damage the DNA in melanocytes, the pigment-producing cells that give rise to melanoma.

"Eventhough we have refined the common wisdom that excess sun exposure is always associated with increased risk of skin cancer, the take-home message for the public is still the same - limit sun exposure and use a sunscreen that blocks both UVA and UVB rays," says the study's lead investigator, Qingyi Wei, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the Department of Epidemiology.

The study is a painstaking analysis of the ability of UVB radiation to damage a cell's chromosomes. Chromosomal injury is one way cells can become malignant; damage to the genes that make up the chromosome is another, and Wei and his clooeagues already have shown in prior studies that melanoma patients often have a reduced capacity to repair the DNA damage that results from UV exposure.

In the novel study, scientists looked at how often chromosomes break in cells from skin cancer patients compared with cells from a control group.........

George      Permalink


December 28, 2005

Smoking Associated With Psoriasis

Cigarette smoking is associated with the clinical severity of the skin disease psoriasis, and both smoking and obesity are more prevalent among psoriasis patients, according to two studies in the recent issue of theArchives of Dermatology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Psoriasis is a chronic, persistent, lifelong disease characterized by scaly red plaques on the surface of the skin. Eventhough psoriasis is not a life-threatening disease, the disability experienced by patients with psoriasis is comparable with that of patients with other chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and depression, according to background information in the article. Cigarette smoking is a risk factor for a number of chronic diseases, including psoriasis, but little is known about the effect of smoking on psoriasis severity.

Cristina Fortes, Ph.D., of Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico, Rome, Italy, and his colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study to evaluate the association between different components of smoking history and the clinical severity of psoriasis. They analyzed data on 818 adults with psoriasis in inpatient wards of a hospital for skin diseases.

"Specifically, patients who smoked more than a pack of cigarettes (more than 20 cigarettes) daily had twice the risk of more severe psoriasis compared with those who smoked ten cigarettes or less per day," the authors report.

Cigarette-years, measured as the product of the intensity and duration of smoking, significantly increased the risk of clinically more severe psoriasis. "Separate analyses for men and women showed that the effect of cigarette-years on psoriasis severity was stronger for women than for men," the authors write.

"Smoking is associated with the clinical severity of psoriasis and highlights the importance of smoking cessation in patients with psoriasis," they conclude.
........

George      Permalink