Latest news with #melanoma
CBC
3 hours ago
- Health
- CBC
This year, 70 people on P.E.I. will be diagnosed with melanoma. Some will die, says epidemiologist.
Prince Edward Island continues to have the highest incidence rate for a serious type of skin cancer among all the Canadian provinces. On average, P.E.I. sees about 70 new melanoma cases a year, and nine people die because of the disease. CBC's Louise Martin talks to Dr. Carol McClure, is P.E.I.'s cancer surveillance epidemiologist.
Medscape
10 hours ago
- Health
- Medscape
Multiomics Platform May Guide Melanoma Treatment
TOPLINE: The novel Tumor Profiler (TuPro) project, which analyzed melanoma samples using nine independent technologies, demonstrated feasibility in guiding treatment decisions. Molecular tumor board recommendations on the basis of TuPro were deemed useful in 75% of cases. METHODOLOGY: Despite advances in melanoma therapy, many patients experience relapse and lack effective treatment options. Multiomics and single-cell profiling promise comprehensive tumor insights but require evaluation for feasibility and clinical utility in guiding treatment decisions. Researchers conducted a prospective, multicentric observational project (TuPro) enrolling 116 patients with any subtype of melanoma, from whom 126 biopsy samples were collected at three Swiss hospitals from January 2019 to November 2020. The TuPro application cohort included 93 patients (103 biopsy samples). The biopsies were analyzed using nine independent technologies, including single-cell genomics, transcriptomics (single-cell RNA sequencing [scRNA-seq]), targeted proteomics (imaging mass cytometry [IMC]), drug phenotyping (Pharmacoscopy), and digital pathology, which generated up to 500 Gb of data per sample within a 4-week turnaround time. The molecular tumor board evaluated data from all technologies to inform treatment recommendations across three patient groups: adjuvant setting (n = 13), palliative standard of care (n = 45), and palliative beyond standard of care (n = 37). The median follow-up duration was 20.5 months. TAKEAWAY: Patients in the palliative standard-of-care group achieved an objective response rate of 60% and a disease control rate of 62%, whereas those in the palliative beyond standard-of-care group achieved an objective response rate of 38% and a disease control rate of 54%. In a matched analysis of patients who received at least three treatment lines, the median progression-free survival reached 8.34 months in the TuPro cohort vs 2.0 months in the non-TuPro cohort (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.23; 95% CI, 0.07-0.79; adjusted P = .0201), suggesting benefit in heavily pretreated patients. Molecular data from TuPro were considered useful by the multidisciplinary molecular tumor board in 75% of evaluated cases, representing a 39% and 33% increase in concordance vs standard clinical workup alone (diagnostic levels 1 and 2, respectively). The TuPro workflow led to actual therapies in 87% of cases. A minimal set of four technologies (next-generation DNA sequencing [NGS], IMC, Pharmacoscopy, and scRNA-seq) could cover all 54 markers used for treatment decision-making at 1.15-fold higher costs than those for the standard NGS for adjuvant or palliative standard-of-care settings and 1.8-fold higher costs than those for the palliative beyond standard-of-care setting. IN PRACTICE: 'This study demonstrates the feasibility of using advanced multiomics approaches, including spatial proteomics, to guide therapy decisions in late-stage melanoma — one of the most aggressive and treatment-resistant cancers — with a reproducible patient benefit,' said Stéphane Chevrier, PhD, CSO, and cofounder of Navignostics and contributor to the TuPro study, in a press release. 'This is a major step toward pan-cancer diagnostics. By providing a comprehensive view of the tumor biology, the approach could eventually identify features that are predictive for treatments across cancer indications.' SOURCE: The study, led by Nicola Miglino, the University of Zurich and University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland, was published online in Nature Medicine. LIMITATIONS: The current approach of selecting markers for treatment decisions by human experts did not capture all potentially relevant information. The retrospective comparison between TuPro and non-TuPro cohorts limited extrapolation and generalizability of the results. Additionally, definitive conclusions about the clinical value of serial sampling cannot be drawn owing to heterogeneous results and a small sample size. DISCLOSURES: The study received an open-access funding from the University of Zurich. Several authors reported having advisory roles or receiving research funding and having other ties with various pharmaceutical companies. Additional disclosures are noted in the original article. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Mum-of-two wants to find stranger who 'saved her life' in work meeting
A cancer researcher who developed the disease herself is hoping to find the stranger who saved her life. Emma Hawke was at a work meeting when a dermatologist she had never met before spotted a suspicious mole on her arm and urged her to get it checked. She was subsequently diagnosed with melanoma - the most serious form of skin cancer. Cancer researcher Emma Hawke was at a work meeting when a doctor spotted a suspicious mole on her arm (Image: Cancer Research UK) Emma, a 42-year-old mother-of-two from Eastleigh, said: "I was watching TV when the phone rang. I thought it was going to be a family member calling, but it was the hospital. "My melanoma diagnosis was a huge shock and I immediately expected to need chemotherapy or immunotherapy. "My sons were just five and eight at the time and I feared they were going to see me becoming really poorly. 'Thankfully it was caught early enough to be managed with surgery and it hadn't spread to my lymph nodes. "I do have a scar on my arm where they had to take a large enough area of skin to safely remove all the cancerous cells, but I would have gone through so much more treatment or worse had I left it. "I would love to find the doctor who spotted it and say thanks for saving my life." Former skin cancer patient Emma Hawke is urging people to stay safe by using plenty of sun cream (Image: Getty Images) Emma is also working to raise awareness of skin cancer. She has joined forces with Cancer Research UK and NIVEA Sun to encourage people across the south to seek shade, cover up, and apply sunscreen regularly. "Awareness of the risks of UV radiation was low when I was younger, and I'd put oil on try to look tanned like the popstars of the 90s," she said. 'Now, I make sure I'm covered up and take some time out of the sun in the middle of the day as well as always being prepared with a hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen. "Sun safety doesn't mean missing out, just being careful whether you're at home or abroad.' READ MORE: Southampton cancer vaccine trial expands for melanoma patients Cancer Research UK health information manager Beth Vincent added: "Getting sunburnt just once every two years can triple the risk of developing skin cancer compared to never being burnt. "Even on a cloudy day, the sun can be strong enough to burn between mid-March and mid-October."
Sky News
a day ago
- Health
- Sky News
We are entering 'golden age' of cancer treatment - and also facing a less gilded era too
A friend of mine was recently diagnosed with a melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer that had spread throughout their body, including their brain. Even a decade ago, their cancer would have been essentially incurable and rapidly fatal. My friend's tumours however are shrinking as their immune system attacks the cancer cells wherever they happen to be in their body. A treatment called immunotherapy is directing their own immune system to find and attack cancer cells in all the parts of the body to which they have spread. It's a familiar story across multiple cancer types with new classes of treatment, often based on rapid advances in understanding of the genetics of cancer - or cancer patients themselves. So the outgoing medical director of the NHS, Sir Stephen Powis, is not wrong: we are entering a "golden era" of cancer treatment, if we're not living in it already. Cancer treatment is becoming increasingly personalised to the specific mutations in the cancer itself. Oncologists know their enemy in more intimate detail than ever before. Tools like AI can sift through that detail to identify new vulnerabilities in cancer cells and techniques like gene editing allow scientists to design previously impossible new ways of exploiting them to slow, or reverse the spread of cancers. But we're entering a parallel and less gilded era too. Cancer is primarily a disease of ageing and our population is doing that rapidly. 1:09 It is also more common in those who eat and drink too much and exercise little - which is most of us - and explains why cancer rates are now, perhaps for the first time in human history, increasing in younger people too. As Sir Stephen points out, prevention must play an important role in reducing that increasing burden. It already has for some: smoking-related lung cancer is declining, so too is cervical cancer thanks to HPV vaccination in schools. But the bulk of cancers linked to poor diet, poor air quality, or poverty in general are not. We're also failing to make sure everybody benefits from the incredible new treatments available and those yet to come. While people are now getting cancer diagnosed faster in the NHS, many start treatment too late. More than 30% of patients wait more than two months to see a cancer specialist following an "urgent" referral from their GP (well below the NHS target that has not been met since it was introduced in 2015). 1:56 Cancer survival is increasing, but so too is the disparity between those benefitting from the latest treatments and those who aren't. Specialist treatment in some parts of the UK is far better than in others - often those in poorer places where cancer rates are higher. And the latest, and best, cancer treatments - which are largely bespoke-tailored to the patient's needs - are increasingly expensive. Affording these has always been a challenge for the NHS and will only get harder. While the golden era unfolds, much must be done to avoid another in which cancer treatment becomes a two, or even three, tier service that offers the best only to a few.
Sky News
a day ago
- Health
- Sky News
We are entering 'golden age' of cancer treatment - but not everybody is benefitting
A friend of mine was recently diagnosed with a melanoma, an aggressive form of skin cancer that had spread throughout their body, including their brain. Even a decade ago, their cancer would have been essentially incurable and rapidly fatal. My friend's tumours however are shrinking as their immune system attacks the cancer cells wherever they happen to be in their body. A treatment called immunotherapy is directing their own immune system to find and attack cancer cells in all the parts of the body to which they have spread. It's a familiar story across multiple cancer types with new classes of treatment, often based on rapid advances in understanding of the genetics of cancer - or cancer patients themselves. So the outgoing medical director of the NHS, Sir Stephen Powis, is not wrong: we are entering a "golden era" of cancer treatment, if we're not living in it already. Cancer treatment is becoming increasingly personalised to the specific mutations in the cancer itself. Oncologists know their enemy in more intimate detail than ever before. Tools like AI can sift through that detail to identify new vulnerabilities in cancer cells and techniques like gene editing allow scientists to design previously impossible new ways of exploiting them to slow, or reverse the spread of cancers. But we're entering a parallel and less gilded era too. Cancer is primarily a disease of ageing and our population is doing that rapidly. 1:09 It is also more common in those who eat and drink too much and exercise little - which is most of us - and explains why cancer rates are now, perhaps for the first time in human history, increasing in younger people too. As Sir Stephen points out, prevention must play an important role in reducing that increasing burden. It already has for some: smoking-related lung cancer is declining, so too is cervical cancer thanks to HPV vaccination in schools. But the bulk of cancers linked to poor diet, poor air quality, or poverty in general are not. We're also failing to make sure everybody benefits from the incredible new treatments available and those yet to come. While people are now getting cancer diagnosed faster in the NHS, many start treatment too late. More than 30% of patients wait more than two months to see a cancer specialist following an "urgent" referral from their GP (well below the NHS target that has not been met since it was introduced in 2015). 1:56 Cancer survival is increasing, but so too is the disparity between those benefitting from the latest treatments and those who aren't. Specialist treatment in some parts of the UK is far better than in others - often those in poorer places where cancer rates are higher. And the latest, and best, cancer treatments - which are largely bespoke-tailored to the patient's needs - are increasingly expensive. Affording these has always been a challenge for the NHS and will only get harder. While the golden era unfolds, much must be done to avoid another in which cancer treatment becomes a two, or even three, tier service that offers the best only to a few.
