Melanoma News and Research

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Melanoma is a form of cancer that begins in melanocytes (cells that make the pigment melanin). It may begin in a mole (skin melanoma), but can also begin in other pigmented tissues, such as in the eye or in the intestines.

Study identifies genes that protect ovarian cancer from antitumor immunity

Immunotherapies are exhibiting better clinical benefit in the treatment of numerous cancers, particularly when used along with chemotherapy.

2 Dec 2021

Treatment with common allergy medication linked to improved immunotherapy response

New research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found that treatment with antihistamines, a commonly used allergy medication, was associated with improved responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors.

29 Nov 2021

Researchers discover molecular mechanism that explains why moles become melanomas

Moles and melanomas are both skin tumors that come from the same cell called melanocytes. The difference is that moles are usually harmless, while melanomas are cancerous and often deadly without treatment.

24 Nov 2021

MIT researchers identify a way to indirectly activate T cells to fight tumors

Under the right circumstances, the body's T cells can detect and destroy cancer cells. However, in most cancer patients, T cells become disarmed once they enter the environment surrounding a tumor.

22 Nov 2021

New technique anticipated to deliver personalized immunotherapies for cancer

Recent research led to a very effective technique to create many immune cells particularly engineered to identify neoantigens.

17 Nov 2021

Immune cell patterns can help predict kidney cancer patients' response to immunotherapy

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and UCL have found immune cell patterns within tumors that can help predict if patients with kidney cancer will respond to immunotherapy.

29 Oct 2021

Researchers develop new approach to selectively turn on gene therapies in target cells

Researchers at MIT and Harvard University have designed a way to selectively turn on gene therapies in target cells, including human cells. Their technology can detect specific messenger RNA sequences in cells, and that detection then triggers production of a specific protein from a transgene, or artificial gene.

From Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 29 Oct 2021

Intussusceptive angiogenesis contributes to growth of daughter tumors in malignant melanoma

For the first time, researchers at the University of Gothenburg have shown that metastases in patients with malignant melanoma gain access to the circulatory system not only through the outgrowth of new blood vessel branches, but also an alternative process in which one blood vessel divide into two parallel vessels bylongitudinal splitting.

28 Oct 2021

MIT researchers discover new way to awaken the immune system to attack tumors

Immunotherapy is a promising strategy to treat cancer by stimulating the body's own immune system to destroy tumor cells, but it only works for a handful of cancers. MIT researchers have now discovered a new way to jump-start the immune system to attack tumors, which they hope could allow immunotherapy to be used against more types of cancer.

From Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 20 Oct 2021

Novel T cells reside in lymph nodes and offer protection against melanoma

Immunotherapy is an advancing field but there is limited knowledge on the immunity to metastatic tumors in locations like lymph nodes.

20 Sep 2021

Vaccinating against certain cancer proteins can boost overall immune response and shrink tumors

Over the past decade, scientists have been exploring vaccination as a way to help fight cancer. These experimental cancer vaccines are designed to stimulate the body's own immune system to destroy a tumor, by injecting fragments of cancer proteins found on the tumor.

17 Sep 2021

Hundreds of mutated tumor suppressor genes can help cancer cells evade the immune system

Hundreds of cancer-linked genes play a different role in causing disease than scientists had expected.

17 Sep 2021

New treatment developed from plant virus could keep metastatic cancers at bay

Using a virus that grows in black-eyed pea plants, nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego developed a new treatment that could keep metastatic cancers at bay from the lungs.

From UC San Diego 15 Sep 2021

Researchers generate first "atlas" of human melanocytes in the body

Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah (U of U) have generated the first "atlas" of human melanocytes located throughout the body.

From The University of Utah 3 Sep 2021

Study reveals how two separate DNA changes may predict aggressive childhood leukemias

New research published today in JAMA Oncology reports how two separate DNA changes appear to predict aggressive childhood leukemias when they occur in combination.

From The University of Utah 20 Aug 2021

Study reveals melanoma is associated with a chemical conversion in DNA

According to recent research, the mutations giving rise to melanoma are the outcome of a chemical conversion in DNA triggered by sunlight.

3 Aug 2021

Study: Biomarker can predict response to immunotherapies in breast cancer patients

A biomarker that has proven to be a predictor for response to immunotherapies in melanoma patients also has clinical relevance for breast cancer patients, according to a new study published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

28 Jul 2021