Skin Cancer

In the treatment of non-melanoma skin cancer, “the fastest-moving area-and the neatest from a science standpoint-is the class of drugs called hedgehog pathway inhibitors.”

Clinicians agree that multi-disciplinary teams are the optimal approach to managing advanced melanoma, for they aim for consistent messaging to patients about treatment and require that physicians who are members of the team support their therapeutic choices with evidence. However, obstacles include geographical challenges in community care, treatment sequencing and bias, and physician communication.

Because skin malignancies often herald internal or systemic malignancies, knowing the link between primary and metastatic sites can impact staging, prognosis and management – and in some cases, save lives.

Immunosuppressed patient with recurrent squamous cell carcinoma succumbs to death. Was the dermatologist who did his skin evaluations negligent?

Researchers at Mayo Clinic’s Jacksonville, Fla., campus reported a discovery that could be the code for reprogramming cancer cells back to normal.

Due to the complexities and follow-up requirements of nonsurgical treatments for skin cancer, patient selection is critical. Expert offers tips for using various noninvasive treatment options for BCC, SCC, and melanoma.

Ongoing research is trying to identify strategies for overcoming resistance of advanced basal cell carcinoma to targeted therapy with a Hedgehog inhibitor. High level evidence to support adjuvant radiotherapy for high-risk non-melanoma skin cancers is lacking, but certain patients warrant evaluation by a multidisciplinary tumor board and treatment with adjuvant radiotherapy based on their risk for recurrence.

Advances in research have led to the emergence of medical therapies for BCCs; more research is needed to develop systemic therapies to treat SCCs.

Many patients and physicians have the misconception that the Hispanic population is not prone to skin cancer. As a result, these patients are not being diagnosed early.

Dr. Goldberg discusses five patient gifting situations. Are any of these acceptable?

Some patients respond more rapidly to immune therapies like ipilimumab, and clinicians have observed delayed toxicities with prolonged use of checkpoint inhibitors; effective treatments for subtypes of melanoma, such as uveal melanoma, have not yet emerged.

New and advancing forms of technology could improve the detection and treatment of melanoma.

Identifying specific neo-antigens in melanoma, a cancer known for having high numbers of genetic mutations caused by exposure to ultraviolet light, is no easy task. learn more.

Skin cancer prevention advocates can learn from the experiences of two skin cancer prevention programs aimed at identifying opportunities to educate young people about sun safety.

SLNB and GEP combined – powerful predictors of metastatic risk. Learn more on the studies results.

Short ALA incubation coupled with blue light therapy yields effective, pain-free results.

Electronic surface brachytherapy is a low-energy radiation treatment for skin cancer. Radiologists are required to administer the treatment, which is controversial in terms of reimbursement and collaborative requirements.

FDA has approved dinutuximab (Unituxin, United Therapeutics) in combination with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-2 (IL-2), and 13-cis-retinoic acid (RA), for the treatment of high-risk pediatric neuroblastoma patients who achieve at least a partial response to prior first-line multiagent, multimodality therapy.

Dermatologists should learn to recognize some rare and common skin conditions that may result from emerging medical therapies.

Outcomes for patients with Merkel Cell Carcinoma are typically poor and therapeutic options are limited, but advances in understanding the biology of the disease, as well as emerging cutting-edge treatments are expected to improve the outlook, experts say.

Ipilimumab has been evaluated in the adjuvant setting. One expert predicts that ipilimumab’s positive effect on progression-free survival will translate into improvements in overall survival; however, he cautions that there is a risk:benefit ratio to be weighed.

Study finds that treatment with erlotinib may be beneficial in selected head-and-neck squamous-cell carcinoma cases

New agent approvals over the last several years and even better ones in the pipeline have displaced older therapies and improved outcomes for patients with melanoma. Some physicians say, the future may bring a cure.

results of a clinical validation study suggest that a new gene expression profile (GEP) test is effective for cutaneous melanoma. Find out how.

Melanoma cells proliferate and thrive with access to glutamine. Learn what one study found happens without the protein building amino acid.