Part of my blog will be sharing recent updates on melanoma with you. I hope that you will find them interesting.
Dogs being taught to sniff out melanoma
Researchers at the University of Florida, working in collaboration with J&K Canine Academy, are teaching dogs to sniff out melanoma. Trainers at J&K, have successfully trained dogs to distinguish between bandages containing cancerous cells and those without. The researchers hope to test whether the dogs can detect actual melanoma tumors in afflicted patients within six months. (http://www.gainesville.com/article/20090610/articles/906101013)
An experimental vaccine study has shown recent promise in the treatment of melanoma.
Announced at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting 2009, Orlando, this study combines the vaccine with interleukin-2 (IL-2), the standard in treatment of melanoma. The idea is to stimulate the immune system to attack cancer cells, much like a typical vaccine would for a common virus. Of 185 patients, tumors shrank in 22% of patients given the vaccine plus IL-2. Of those patients given IL-2 alone, tumors shrank in 10% of patients. The vaccine was also said to delay cancer growth from 1 and ½ months, using just IL-2, to almost 3 months with the vaccine combo. (http://lewislawfirm.blogspot.com/2009/06/on-horizon-vaccine-for-melanoma.html)
The appearance of auto-antibodies is not strongly associated with improved outcome in melanoma patients treated with interferon, scientists report, contradicting what was previously believed.
When treated as a time-independent variable, appearance of auto-antibodies was associated with improved relapse-free intervals in both trials. The researchers then corrected for guarantee-time bias, which is the additional time that patients with improved outcomes have to become antibody-positive. Accounting for this time, the scientists found that the association was weak and not statistically significant. (http://www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem.aspx?name=56017274)
