Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center and Medical Facility Mannheim at Heidelberg University have looked into the affects of Viagra on mice with melanoma. The researchers are actually studying sildenafil, which is the active ingredient in the famous little blue pill. It was found that, “cancerous mice treated with the drug  survived more than twice as long as untreated fellow animals”, as reported by insciences.org.

This sounds like great news, but as Dr. Viktor Umansky points out:

On the one hand, cells of  the immune system specifically attack tumor cells. On the other,  however, almost every tumor causes in its microenvironment a chronic  inflammatory immune response which suppresses the specific antitumor  immunity.

So, Umansky claims, that they are trying to reduce the chronic inflamations and through that support the immune system as it attempts to fight the cancer cells.

 For their research, they used  genetically-modified (transgenic) mice that spontaneously develop a type  of skin cancer which is very similar to human melanoma. In the tumor  environment and in metastatic lymph nodes of the animals, the  investigators detected inflammatory mediators such interleukin-1-β and  interferon-γ. These immune mediators attract what are called  myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC). These immune cells are known to  inhibit the immune system’s most important tumor-specific fighters, the  T cells.

Under the influence of MDSC, it appears as though the T cells stopped rapidly reproducing. This means that sildenafil is capable of neutralizing the chronic inflammation caused by melanoma. The researchers claim that melanoma in mice acts very similarly to how it does in humans. Umansky said that, “it is very well possible that sildenafil can also inhibit the immunosuppressive  effects of inflammation and thus improve antitumor immunity in people  with melanoma”. This could cause much better treatment results for melanoma patients. Here at MoleSafe, we certainly hope they’re on to something!

Startling new research was published in the Journal of American Academy of Dermatology this month, says Newswise. The research, conducted by the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences’ Appathurai Balamurugan, M.D., M.P.H., stated that survivors of melanoma were more likely to contract melanoma again, as well as other forms of cancer, than other members of the general public.

The study was the first of its kind to estimate the risk of new cancers among people with in situ (noninvasive) melanoma using such a large sample size: 40,881 people. It found that even when diagnosed early, women melanoma survivors were 12 times more likely to develop invasive melanoma, and men survivors were eight times more likely.

People were studied between 1992 and 2006 for this study. The data for the study came from the National Cancer Institute Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results Program. Balamurugan points out that, “the higher incidence for women… is probably a result of increased time spent outdoors and the use of tanning beds”. He also says that why the average age for woman contracting melanoma is currently in the 50s, the age is rapidly dropping into the 40s, and even 30s.

The article points out that, “the stakes are high… because an estimated 70,230 people in the United States will be diagnosed with melanoma, and an estimated 8,760 people will die due to melanoma in 2011″.  As for other forms of cancer, the percentages of melanoma survivors contracting these forms were also shockingly high.

For survivors of an in situ (noninvasive early stage) melanoma, their risk of getting lymphocytic leukemia was 44 percent higher for men and 79 percent for women. Men and women survivors of an invasive melanoma also were at higher risk for thyroid cancer (about twice as likely), non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (about 50 percent more likely) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (about 60 percent).

The article states that researchers hope that these findings force physicians to become more aggressive in their screening for melanoma. They also hope that doctors will be better at educating their patients about the dangers of this cancer. All it takes is a simple shift in behavior to prevent melanoma. If the public can make this more apparent, we would see a fall in the cases of this cancer. MoleSafe is trying to do just this!

Many cancers have proven to be hereditary. Breast and colon cancer, for example, are known to be passed down through families. This has caused many scientists to take a closer look at melanoma, the deadliest skin cancer, to see if it too is one of the cancers which can be passed down through genetic mutations. It seems as though researchers in Queensland, Australia and researchers in Britain may have found the answer.

Five genetic mutations have been found which, “increase the risk of developing melanoma by almost 60 percent”. These genetic faults have nothing to do with skin, hair, or eye color. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that:

“…the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, compared the genome of more than 2000 Australians with melanoma with more than 4000 people without the disease. They found that people with a variation in two genetic regions on chromosome one had a 30 per cent increased risk of developing melanoma compared with people without the variations. The team believes one of these faults lies within a gene known to cause melanoma in zebrafish.”

The Australians were not the only ones however, on to the fact that there may be a genetic mutation which causes melanoma. Researchers in Britain were also looking into this possibility. In fact, the Australians posted their results with a British study posted in Nature Genetics which identified three more genetic regions which could cause an increase in one’s risk for melanoma.

As CBC News states, “The discoveries may help to unravel how the deadly skin cancer develops”. It is interesting also, that two countries on the other side of the globe from each other would each be studying the same thing. Both teams were looking at the, “…very short sections of DNA known as SNPs, which may point to different variants of the gene that the SNP is part of. The aim is to find SNPs, and hence gene variants, that correlate with having melanoma”.

This allowed the teams to use each other’s research as a means of checking to see if SNPs that were related to Melanoma really did exist. Four of the sections proved to be significant in both studies.

“These four SNPs are in addition to at least seven others related to melanoma found in earlier genetic studies. These earlier SNPs relate to skin pigmentation and moles, which is significant as many melanomas start from an abnormal mole.”

The next step for the scientists was to figure out which genes the SNPs belonged to. What they found to be most interesting, is that these new SNPs had nothing to do with the pigment of skin or moles.

So what does this all mean? Eventually, scientists may be able to identify exactly who is most at risk for melanoma. Like breast cancer and colon cancer, patients who are at risk for melanoma will be able to take the necessary steps to prevent themselves from contracting the cancer, by catching it early on. MoleSafe will be an important tool for these patients to use.