http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Following some of the coldest and wettest weather on record, around 4.9 million people in the UK (10 per cent) are more likely to risk scorching themselves in strong sun in an attempt to get a tan this summer, a survey by Cancer Research UK and NIVEA SUN reveals today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-sun-starved-brits-health-summer.html Cancer Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:28:16 EST news286439290 (HealthDay)—The incidence of pediatric melanoma has increased by about 2 percent per year, and this incidence trend is influenced by gender, age, and stage at diagnosis, primary site, and ultraviolet (UV)-B exposure, according to research published online April 15 in Pediatrics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-pediatric-melanomas-percent-year.html Pediatrics Tue, 16 Apr 2013 06:40:02 EST news285308202 For the first time, researchers have mapped the genomes of tapeworms to reveal potential drug targets on which existing drugs could act. The genomes provide a new resource that offers faster ways to develop urgently needed and effective treatments for these debilitating diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-tapeworm-dna-drug-weak.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:00:08 EST news282395537 A multi-institutional study has revealed that BRAF-positive metastatic malignant melanomas develop resistance to treatment with drugs targeting the BRAF/MEK growth pathway through a major change in metabolism. The findings, which will be published in Cancer Cell and have been released online, suggest a strategy to improve the effectiveness of currently available targeted therapies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-braf-inhibitor-treatment-melanoma-cells.html Cancer Fri, 08 Mar 2013 10:51:41 EST news281962294 The gene most strongly linked to obesity and overeating may also increase the risk of malignant melanoma – the most deadly skin cancer, reveals research published in Nature Genetics. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-evidence-obesity-gene-factor-melanoma.html Genetics Mon, 04 Mar 2013 07:47:00 EST news281605613 Over two fifths (43 per cent) of people in the UK who have used sunbeds – which are proven to prematurely age the skin – are using anti-ageing products.  This compares with only a fifth (20 per cent) of those who have not used a sunbed, according to a new Cancer Research UK survey. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-sunbed-users-anti-ageing-products-non-sunbed.html Cancer Thu, 21 Feb 2013 08:10:46 EST news280656636 Adding lung cancer drugs to targeted melanoma treatment could increase survival for certain patients, according to research published in Cancer Discovery today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-early-results-drugs-deadly-skin.html Cancer Tue, 12 Feb 2013 08:30:02 EST news279878258 New research in animals triggered by a combination of serendipity and counterintuitive thinking could point the way to treating fractures caused by rapid bone loss in people, including patients with metastatic cancers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-steroids-reverse-rapid-bone-loss.html Medical research Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:00:01 EST news279305366 Two new mutations that collectively occur in 71 percent of malignant melanoma tumors have been discovered in what scientists call the "dark matter" of the cancer genome, where cancer-related mutations haven't been previously found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-mutations-malignant-melanoma.html Cancer Thu, 24 Jan 2013 14:00:12 EST news278258137 (Medical Xpress)—The average skin cancer risk from sunbeds is more than double that of spending the same length of time in the Mediterranean midday summer sun – according to new research from the University of Dundee and published today in the British Journal of Dermatology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-sunbed-skin-cancer-mediterranean-midday.html Cancer Thu, 17 Jan 2013 06:31:56 EST news277626686 The human body contains immune cells programmed to fight cancer and viral infections, but they often have short lifespans and are not numerous enough to overcome attacks by particularly aggressive malignancies or invasions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-revolutionary-techniques-harness-patients-immune.html Medical research Thu, 03 Jan 2013 12:00:12 EST news276427204 Natural killer cells, as part of the body´s immune system, can effectively fight cancer. Unfortunately, they quickly lose their aggressiveness and hence are unable to reject solid tumors. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center have now discovered a cocktail consisting of three different immune mediators that leaves NK killer cells active over a long period of time. In mice, cocktail-boosted NK cells let tumors shrink. The cocktail -was able to persistently activate human NK cells, too. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-cocktail-boosts-immune-cells-cancer.html Cancer Thu, 06 Dec 2012 10:49:52 EST news274013382 A newly developed antibody targeting a signalling pathway that is frequently active in solid tumours has shown encouraging signs of efficacy in its first trial in humans, researchers will report at the 24th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Dublin, Ireland, today (Wednesday). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-monoclonal-antibody-inhibits-tumor-growth.html Cancer Tue, 06 Nov 2012 18:00:03 EST news271440465 Blocking the action of a particular protein in our skin could improve the treatment of skin cancers, according to a study published in Oncogene yesterday by Philippe Roux, a researcher at the University of Montreal's Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-melanoma-resistance-chemotherapy.html Cancer Wed, 31 Oct 2012 17:19:34 EST news270922760 Malignant melanoma is as much as 35% more common among people who live in Gothenburg and the region's coastal municipalities than those who live inland. Researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have found that the number of malignant melanoma cases in the Västra Götaland region has quadrupled since 1970. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-alarming-malignant-melanoma-west-coast.html Cancer Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:09:52 EST news270122986 Melanoma is so dangerous because it tends to metastasize early on. New treatment approaches utilize, among other things, the ability of the immune defense to search out and destroy malignant cells. Yet this strategy is often only temporarily effective. A research team under the direction of Bonn University has discovered why this is the case: In the inflammatory reaction caused by the treatment, the tumor cells temporarily alter their external characteristics and thus become invisible to defense cells. This knowledge forms an important foundation for the improvement of combination therapies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-melanoma-cells-circumvent-immune.html Cancer Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:00:06 EST news269091890 Indoor tanning beds can cause non-melanoma skin cancer – and the risk is greater the earlier one starts tanning, according to a new analysis led by UCSF. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-links-tanning-beds-non-melanoma-skin.html Cancer Tue, 02 Oct 2012 18:30:06 EST news268407179 Combined treatment with two drugs targeting different points in the same growth-factor pathway delayed the development of treatment resistance in patients with BRAF-positive metastatic malignant melanoma. The results of a phase I/II study of treatment with the kinase inhibitors dabrafenib and trametinib will be published in the New England Journal of Medicine and are being released online to coincide with a presentation at the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting in Vienna. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-combination-treatment-drugs-resistance-melanoma.html Cancer Sat, 29 Sep 2012 05:50:57 EST news268116620 Researchers at Uppsala University have cloned a T-cell receptor that binds to an antigen associated with prostate cancer and breast cancer. T cells that have been genetically equipped with this T-cell receptor have the ability to specifically kill prostate and breast cancer cells. The study is being published this week in PNAS. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-cloned-receptor-paves-breast-prostate.html Cancer Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:06:40 EST news266760374 A monitor developed at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, to help prevent over-exposure to the sun is set to go on the market as part of a new spinout company. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-sun.html Other Mon, 06 Aug 2012 12:43:11 EST news263475781 (HealthDay) -- Skin cancer is more common among white people, but people with darker skin are also at risk, a dermatology expert cautions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-people-darker-skin-melanoma.html Cancer Thu, 26 Jul 2012 05:40:01 EST news262498521 British men and women in their 50s have seen cases of malignant melanoma – the most dangerous form of skin cancer  - soar from fewer than 500 each year to almost 2,000* since the end of the 1970s, new figures from Cancer Research UK show today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-middle-aged-surge-potentially-fatal-skin.html Cancer Tue, 24 Jul 2012 09:08:06 EST news262339676 A major international study has identified a novel gene mutation that appears to increase the risk of both inherited and sporadic cases of malignant melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. The identified mutation occurs in the gene encoding MITF, a transcription factor that induces the production of several important proteins in melanocytes, the cells in which melanoma originates. While previous research has suggested that MITF may act as a melanoma oncogene, the current study identifies a mechanism by which MITF mutation could increase melanoma risk. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-newly-gene-mutation-melanoma.html Cancer Sun, 13 Nov 2011 13:00:19 EST news240409834 Many tumors cause chronic inflammations, which, in their turn, suppress specific attacks against the tumor by the immune system. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center and Medical Faculty Mannheim at Heidelberg University have now shown in mice with melanoma that sildenafil - the active ingredient in Viagra - cancels the suppression of the specific immune response. Cancerous mice treated with the drug survived more than twice as long as untreated fellow animals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-viagra-combat-malignant-melanoma.html Cancer Tue, 08 Nov 2011 11:36:10 EST news239974553 Because the incidence of malignant melanoma is rising faster than any other cancer in the U.S., researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., and colleagues at Tampa-based Intezyne Technologies, Inc., Western Carolina University and the University of Arizona are working overtime to develop new technologies to aid in both malignant melanoma diagnosis and therapy. A tool of great promise comes from the world of nanomedicine – where tiny drug delivery systems are measured in the billionths of meters and are being designed to deliver targeted therapies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-ways-image-therapeutically-melanoma.html Other Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:10:06 EST news239536215 (Medical Xpress) -- A smaller surgical procedure is fully sufficient to treat patients with the more hazardous form of malignant melanoma of the skin. This according to a major international multicentre study, coordinated at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, which is now published in the prestigious scientific journal The Lancet. A smaller surgical procedure spares the patient undue suffering, gives better cosmetic results without compromising safety, and the results showed the same survival patterns as for the patients undergoing the conventional larger operation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-smaller-surgical-procedure-sufficient-high-risk.html Cancer Tue, 25 Oct 2011 06:50:01 EST news238742658 An international team of researchers has discovered the first DNA faults linked to melanoma - the deadliest skin cancer - that are not related to hair, skin or eye colour. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-gene-faults-melanoma-percent.html Genetics Sun, 09 Oct 2011 13:00:20 EST news237382889 People who frequently use tanning beds may be spurred by an addictive neurological reward-and-reinforcement trigger, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in a pilot study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-tanning-bed-users-brain-behavior.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:21:53 EST news232208502 Malignant melanoma is a highly aggressive and notoriously chemoresistant form of cancer. In a new paper, Ohanna et al. reveal that anti-melanoma drugs may, paradoxically, induce a senescence-associated secretory profile ("secretome") that can ultimately promote metastasis and contribute to melanoma relapse. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-genetics-melanoma-chemoresistance.html Cancer Mon, 06 Jun 2011 03:42:03 EST news226550507