https://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Cells from cancerous tumors can spread, or metastasize, throughout the body. Researchers have long sought to understand what determines where those cells will go and thrive in order to more effectively treat the cancer and prevent metastasis. Researchers at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) have now identified biological markers for a rare, aggressive eye cancer that predict the likelihood of secondary tumors forming in the liver. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-eye-cancer-genes-predetermine-liver.html Mon, 09 Feb 2026 09:59:52 EST news689853541 A study of U.S. veterans led by investigators at Mass General Brigham has identified a possible link between exposure to the Agent Orange herbicide and a rare melanoma subtype less likely to be related to sun exposure. The authors of the study, published in JAMA Dermatology, say this link warrants further examination to inform diagnostic strategies for people who may be at a greater risk for acral melanoma. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-agent-orange-exposure-factor-rare.html Wed, 04 Feb 2026 16:43:32 EST news689445781 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 microorganism infections caused between 13 and 18% of these cases. Until now, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified thirteen microorganisms as carcinogenic, which include viruses, bacteria and parasites. However, recent studies have shown that there are other microorganism types linked to cancer; some of them are fungi. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-fungus-body-melanoma-aggressive.html Tue, 03 Feb 2026 14:40:01 EST news689350099 Patients with advanced lung cancer who received immunochemotherapy before 15:00 (3 p.m.) had a more delayed disease progression than patients receiving treatment later in the day. The findings, published as part of a randomized phase 3 trial of 210 participants in Nature Medicine, suggest that scheduling therapy early in the day may offer a simple, cost-neutral way to enhance standard care. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-chemo-pm-successful-lung-cancer.html Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:50:03 EST news689258826 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. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-immunotherapy-surgery-tumors-patients-desmoplastic.html Thu, 29 Jan 2026 05:00:01 EST news688752048 Researchers at Queen Mary's Barts Cancer Institute have found a more active approach to monitoring and treating people with a rare eye cancer (known as uveal melanoma) that has spread to the liver could help some patients to live longer. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-approach-people-rare-eye-cancer.html Thu, 22 Jan 2026 10:54:10 EST news688301581 Five-year relative survival rates for all cancers combined have increased to 70% for people diagnosed during 2015 to 2021 in the United States, according to the "Cancer Statistics, 2026," report, published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-reveals-year-survival-cancers.html Tue, 13 Jan 2026 17:40:01 EST news687521386 When Heidi Tarr was a teenager, she used a tanning bed several times a week with her friends because they all wanted to glow like a celebrity. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-dont-tanning-beds-triple-skin.html Sun, 28 Dec 2025 14:00:01 EST news684831221 Tanning bed users are known to have a higher risk of skin cancer, but for the first time researchers have found that young indoor tanners undergo genetic changes that can lead to more mutations in their skin cells than people twice their age. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-indoor-tanning-youthful-skin-older.html Sat, 27 Dec 2025 11:10:02 EST news684736715 The current melanoma staging system does not always reflect actual survival outcomes. In some cases, patients with thick but localized tumors have poorer long-term survival than those with melanoma that has spread to nearby lymph nodes, according to a large Swedish registry study from the University of Gothenburg. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-thick-melanoma-tumors-linked-poorer.html Thu, 18 Dec 2025 10:03:21 EST news685274581 Published today in Clinical Cancer Research, findings from a study led by investigators at the Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), which forms part of the Vall d'Hebron Campus, underscore the efficacy of analyzing circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) using a highly sensitive liquid biopsy platform for evaluating early response, predicting survival and tumor progression in patients with advanced cancers who received treatment with immunotherapy in the context of phase 1 clinical trials. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-ultrasensitive-liquid-biopsy-affective-immunotherapy.html Wed, 17 Dec 2025 21:10:05 EST news685197278 The first-in-human clinical phase I trial assessing the feasibility and safety of WDVAX, an immunostimulatory biomaterial-based cancer vaccine, in a cohort of 21 patients with stage 4 metastatic melanoma, was concluded with positive outcomes that encourage future vaccine developments and trials to test them in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-clinical-trial-personalized-cancer-vaccine.html Mon, 15 Dec 2025 15:29:42 EST news685034941 Tanning bed use is tied to almost a three-fold increase in melanoma risk, and for the first time, scientists have shown how these devices cause melanoma-linked DNA damage across nearly the entire skin surface, reports a new study led by Northwestern Medicine and University of California, San Francisco. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-tanning-beds-mutate-skin-cells.html Fri, 12 Dec 2025 14:00:06 EST news684678541 According to a new study, lower doses of approved immunotherapy for malignant melanoma can give better results against tumors, while reducing side effects. This is reported by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-doses-immunotherapy-skin-cancer-results.html Sun, 07 Dec 2025 19:10:04 EST news684084901 An increasing number of Swedes are getting tattoos and Sweden's population is now one of the most tattooed in Europe. At the same time, the incidence of melanoma is increasing. A new epidemiological study from Lund University in Sweden suggests that tattoos could be a risk factor for melanoma. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-tattoos-factor-melanoma.html Tue, 25 Nov 2025 15:50:02 EST news683307428 Aggressive cancer cells are masters of movement. When they spread through the body, they cause metastasis, which significantly reduces a person's chance of survival. For this spreading to take place, they can switch between different cell states—behaviors of cells—that move with different strategies. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-cancer-cells-tight-tissue-gaps.html Tue, 18 Nov 2025 11:00:06 EST news682599761 Counties in Pennsylvania that contained or were near cultivated cropland had significantly higher melanoma rates compared to other regions, according to a new study led by scientists at Penn State. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-skin-cancer-cluster-pennsylvania-counties.html Fri, 14 Nov 2025 16:00:02 EST news682332361 Melanoma remains one of the hardest skin cancers to diagnose because it often mimics harmless moles or lesions. While most artificial intelligence (AI) tools rely on dermoscopic images alone, they often overlook crucial patient information (like age, gender, or where on the body the lesion appears) that can improve diagnostic accuracy. This highlights the importance of multimodal fusion models that can enable high precision diagnosis. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-deep-skin-cancer-accuracy.html Fri, 14 Nov 2025 12:33:04 EST news682345981 Scientists at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute) have uncovered how the gut microbiota help the immune system fight melanoma, explaining why patients with a fiber-rich diet and balanced gut bacteria tend to respond better to cancer immunotherapies. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-microbiome-fiber-rich-diet-melanoma.html Tue, 11 Nov 2025 11:27:04 EST news682082821 Metastatic melanoma cells that have spread to lymph nodes survive by relying on a protein called ferroptosis suppressor protein 1 (FSP1)—a surprising metabolic dependency that could open the door to a new class of cancer treatments, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-triggering-cell-death-metastatic-melanoma.html Wed, 05 Nov 2025 11:00:19 EST news681471891 New research from Moffitt Cancer Center shows that RAS(ON) multi-selective inhibition can directly block tumor growth and activate the immune system, offering the first targeted approach for patients with NRAS-mutant melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer with limited treatment options beyond immune checkpoint inhibitors. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-evidence-therapy-nras-mutant-melanoma.html Tue, 04 Nov 2025 23:20:01 EST news681496443 University of Queensland researchers have found that a genetic mutation that causes melanoma can lie dormant in healthy skin, a finding that could improve screening of areas more prone to the disease. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-conventional-wisdom-common-melanoma.html Wed, 29 Oct 2025 20:50:01 EDT news680964080 Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, can't always be removed with a scalpel. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-inhibiting-problematic-protein-immunotherapies-car.html Tue, 28 Oct 2025 22:50:01 EDT news680888044 Melanoma is the most common form of skin cancer, but for patients with advanced melanoma who no longer respond to standard immunotherapy, treatment options are painfully limited. Vanderbilt researchers led by Professor Emerita of Pharmacology Ann Richmond have discovered a promising new drug combination that targets three key pathways at once and that may help these treatment-resistant patients respond once again to the body's own immune defenses. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-drug-combination-melanoma-patients-resistant.html Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:10:01 EDT news680795106 A genomic test co-developed by Mayo Clinic and SkylineDx can identify whether people with melanoma are at low or high risk for cancer in their lymph nodes—a finding that could guide treatment decisions and help many people avoid lymph node biopsy surgery. The study results are published in JAMA Surgery. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-genomic-people-melanoma-lymph-node.html Wed, 22 Oct 2025 15:00:03 EDT news680363407 For patients with resected stage IIIB-C or stage IV melanoma, recurrence-free survival is longer with nivolumab than ipilimumab, according to a study published online Oct. 18 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the annual meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology, held from Oct. 17 to 21 in Berlin. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-recurrence-free-survival-longer-nivolumab.html Tue, 21 Oct 2025 15:59:02 EDT news680281141 Patients with advanced lung or skin cancer who received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting immunotherapy drugs lived significantly longer than those who did not get the vaccine, researchers have found. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-covid-mrna-vaccine-immune-response.html Sun, 19 Oct 2025 08:50:03 EDT news679922110 Patients with cancer who received mRNA-based COVID vaccines within 100 days of starting immune checkpoint therapy were twice as likely to be alive three years after beginning treatment, according to a new study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-mrna-based-covid-vaccines-generate.html Sun, 19 Oct 2025 08:50:01 EDT news679926880 New research published in Cell finds the existence of craters on the surface of melanoma cells that serve as immune hubs, becoming major sites for tumor killing. These craters could serve as good markers for immunotherapy success. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-craters-surface-melanoma-cells-tumor.html Fri, 17 Oct 2025 11:00:01 EDT news679824422 QIMR Berghofer has unveiled the next-generation of its world-leading melanoma risk prediction calculator to better help Australians take action against one of the country's most deadly, costly, and common cancers that claims more lives each year than the national road toll. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09-melanoma-factors-personal-traits-regional.html Mon, 29 Sep 2025 15:45:12 EDT news678379506