We thought this was an impactful video from the David Cornfield Melanoma Fund, a Canadian non-profit doing a good job of raising awareness among young people and their caregivers about the importance of prevention and early detection of Melanoma. This Public Service Announcement speaks for itself…and for many who are no longer able to tell their story of melanoma. Please share with everyone…and especially every 16 year old… that you know:
May is Melanoma and Skin Cancer Awareness Month, and we have a few ways to make the vigilance easier! First, we invite you to “like” our new MoleSafe Facebook page! We’ll try to keep you updated with interesting updates from all our locations and patient comments. Straightaway you might want to check out the patient video of the Walters sisters who get regular check-ups at our CentraState MoleSafe location after they were each diagnosed around age 30. They describe our approach and their version of sun protection vigilance, too.
Next, what better time than Mother’s Day to thank moms like the Walters sisters who now also ensure they practice safe sun exposure for their kids as well! As a reminder, that includes having them play in the shade, using protective clothing, and applying sunscreen regularly.
Speaking of sun exposure, SpaFinders is in on the awareness path with a sun-exposure alert bracelet! Much better idea than the “suntan turnover time alerts” we still hear on the radio some times…
Another way to make a “fashion statement” about melanoma is through the numerous items touting Melanoma Awareness which you can find at Zazzle.com, for example.
We applaud the AAD‘s “31 Days and 31 Ways” to Prevent and Detect Melanoma. Check out each of the days of May for good tips and suggestions, as well as their list of locations for free skin cancer check-ups. Of course, we believe that May is the best time — before summer kicks off — to get the most thorough exam possible using the latest high tech methods of screening for skin cancers and melanoma, and that is the methodology used by MoleSafe in the U.S. and MoleMap worldwide.
Here’s to a good, healthy month of May!
Today is Melanoma Monday, and as described in an upbeat but informative blog, “EGMN: Notes From the Road” – by the Maryland-based staff of the Elsevier Global Medical Network – Melanoma Monday could “use some love.” Melanoma Monday is a good idea — intended to kick off the stepped up education and outreach during May as Melanoma/ Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month. However, it IS sort of challenging to love ANY Monday, associated with heading back to work, let alone one named Melanoma Monday.
EGMN sums it up with insight and humor:
…who would want to visit a website called Melanoma Monday unless you already have an interest in the disease. Which is too bad, because there is some cool stuff there that could help with melanoma prevention and early detection.
Free skin cancer screenings are being offered in May, and site visitors can find one near them. What if clinic waiting rooms let patients take the site’s Suntelligence Survey on a computer and offered sunscreen samples as prizes? And hey, let’s get the kids involved with the cool Body Mole Map that you can download from the .org site. Make it a game! Make it an annual birthday ritual now, so that by the time they’re young adults they’ll want to keep doing it for nostalgia’s sake, if nothing else.
So, EGMN, we agree, and we’re here to support Melanoma Monday and show it some love. Because what’s in a name, when lives could be saved? Coming up from Melanoma Updates (yes, perhaps we could have a more scintillating name, too!), we’ll share some resources and recommendations for loving the whole MONTH of Melanoma awareness.
At MoleSafe, we are quite used to seeing the super-enlargements and “high def” reality of various lesions, moles, skin blemishes and irregularities. After all, with our advanced detection technology we see details even macro-photography doesn’t reveal. (See an example in my post, Spotting Melanoma.) And, we have frequently promoted the ABCDEs of skin cancer self-exams and shared the rules of thumb about suspicious marks. However, there has rarely been a consumer news piece as clear and as, well, blatant, as CBSNews.com’s feature posted this week, of “38 photos that could save your life.” Certainly, our friends at the Skin Cancer Foundation, credited with these images, share examples on their site, but we felt the CBS spread was important for its ability to reach the general public.
This nodular lesion is a squamous cell carcinoma. These lesions are seldom fatal but can be disfiguring. Credit: The Skin Cancer Foundation
The images are startling, clear, and come with specific explanations of the whys and whats that distinguish the moles and lesions in the photos. They may be difficult for the average person to review, but I feel they are important as a way to increase awareness of what could be ignored or overlooked and with this kind of education what could, just as the title promises, save your life. Just as we felt about Dr. Oz and the “in your face” videos of skin cancers and prevention information that he shared, this photographic guide is worthy of a “Hat’s On” award for straightforward, helpful coverage of exactly what to look for in the variety of skin cancer presentations.
And yet again, here are those rules of thumb again for your skin self-exams and warning signs to heed:
There is still a feeling by many that tan-looking skin is preferable to pale. We’re still working to buck this perception Rome wasn’t built in a day. So, for those who still want the glow but have at least gotten the message that they should do it without the sun, here are some suggestions by NBC’s Today Show style editor, Bobbie Thomas on the best of sunless tanners.
Note: this is not an endorsement of any particular product…just an endorsement of getting the look you want in a safer way:
1. First up, cult favorite “Big Bronzer” by Cargo Cosmetics. The jumbo oversized palette will instantl
y warm up your face or body. With just a hint of shimmer, you can quickly apply a little or a lot for a natural looking glow.
2. For an even easy-to-apply application simply swipe on a little color… Kate Somerville’s Tanning Towelettes are paraben-free, streak-free and mess-free, while Dr. Denese’s Glow Younger Self-Tanning Gloves will do the same and offer anti-aging benefits.
3. New on the bronzing scene is Temptu’s Summer Skin 3 Step Air Pod system–perfect for die-hard spray tan fans who want to give it a go at home.
4. Last but not least, if you want a faux glow without the long-term commitment, L’Oreal and St. Tropez both offer great “1 Day” options that easily wash away with soap & water.
PS: The timing has never been better for encouraging your teen to try sunless tanners. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, which officially opposes indoor tanning and supports a ban on indoor tanning for non-medical purposes, most tanning salon patrons are white females in their teens and 20s. And not coincidentally they also point out:
Melanoma is the second most common form of cancer for adolescents and young adults 15-29 years old. Melanoma is increasing faster in females ages 15-29 than males in the same age group. The torso is the most common location for developing skin cancer which may be due to deliberate tanning. Studies have demonstrated that exposure to UV radiation during indoor tanning can lead to skin aging, immune suppression, and eye damage, including cataracts and ocular melanoma.
So consider Bobbie’s sunless tanners recommendations or take those of the AADA and just say no to tans altogether.
As we wrote about back in June, the most promising drug in the war on Melanoma, ipilimumab, was fast-tracked and finally approved as “Yervoy” for Bristol-Myers Squibb by the FDA last week.
Ipi is an immune therapy drug: it tries to activate or stimulate the immune system to clear cancer cells. While ipi’s funny name has not improved much with a brand name like Yervoy, it is anything but laughable. We have been challenged to make ANY progress with drug therapy and this new therapy is a welcome advance. With the usual current immuno-therapy treatments, such as interleukin, we haven’t been able to significantly extend the immune response to melanoma cells. As described on WebMD:
Yervoy appears to extend survival when used as a first-line treatment for inoperable stage III or stage IV melanoma, Bristol-Myers announced earlier this week. Details of the study will be reported at the June meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Yervoy is a biologic therapy. It’s a kind of man-made antibody (a monoclonal antibody) that blocks a crucial switch on immune cells called CTLA-4. Cancers use this switch to turn off the body’s anticancer immune responses.
Most drugs like this come with possibly severe side effects, and Yervoy is no exception. The drug can provoke powerful autoimmune reactions in which the immune system attacks normal cells in the body. In clinical trials, nearly 13% of patients taking Yervoy had severe or fatal autoimmune reactions.
Even with those caveats this does seem to be some light at the end of the tunnel:
FDA approved the drug based on a Bristol Myers study of 676 people with advanced, inoperable melanoma who had already failed two other treatments, giving them a very short life expectancy. They were given one of three treatments: ipilimumab by itself, ipilimumab combined with another immune-stimulating treatment, or the immune-stimulating treatment alone.
Average survival was 10 months with ipilimumab versus just more than six months for the others. But a very small group of patients survived longer than six years, suggesting that with more study the drug could be targeted to those who will respond the most.
About 85 percent of patients had little response to the drug. Researchers say the response rate should improve as the drug is used earlier in the disease cycle.
“I think the direction this is headed is toward intervening earlier, when patients’ immune systems are still intact, rather than waiting until they are so sick,” said Dr. Anna Pavlick, director of the New York University’s melanoma program. Pavlick, a spokeswoman for the Skin Cancer Foundation, helped conduct several early-stage trials of ipilimumab.
Bristol-Myers Squibb expects to begin shipping YERVOY within weeks.
Duke University is testing a promising new Melanoma detection laser - which, for the first time, gives scientists the ability to identify substantial chemical differences between cancerous and healthy skin tissues and prevent unnecessary biopsies, by identifying a pigment more prominent in cancerous moles. As of now it is being tested on biopsied tissue samples, but may eventually be an effective pre-biopsy tool as well.
There are two issues at play here. The first is the need for improved detection of Melanoma. As we’ve noted here repeatedly, the MoleSafe technique takes skin cancer assessments and screenings to the next level, well beyond the “naked eye exam,” which, as I described again in my last post, is a good precursory practice between more rigorous screenings but is out-dated when used as the exclusive approach. The second issue is that there is still the challenge in interpreting the results of biopsies of suspicious moles, no matter how they are discovered.
As the Duke article says,
Doctors typically use a light and a magnifying glass or tissue biopsy, where a pathologist removes suspicious skin cells and looks at them under a microscope, to spot signs of disease. But using a lens and a light is a “17th century” technique that is only 85 percent accurate, at best, and tissue biopsy is not much more reliable…
In 14 percent of biopsy diagnoses, pathologists would disagree on whether or not the sampled cells were cancerous, according to a 2010 study published in the Journal of American Academy of Dermatology. The statistic implies that two pathologists would have opposing diagnoses on 214,000 to 643,000 melanoma cases each year.
Since, as a result, many doctors will follow the “when in doubt, cut it out” philosophy, this new laser holds the promise of maximizing accurate diagnoses, and down the road perhaps being a promising pre-biopsy screening tool as well.
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In other screening news, Bloomberg’s BusinessWeek reported on a story posted in the Archives of Dermatology on the increased skin self-exams conducted by kidney transplant patients from good old-fashioned education and information. Compliance in self-exams jumped to 89% among those in the study group, resulting in a dozen patients actually spotting an area of concern and making an appointment with their dermatologist.
The patients in the intervention group were given printed educational materials to promote skin self-examination. The patients in the control group did not receive the educational materials. Follow-up revealed that patients in the intervention group were much more likely to perform skin self-examinations than those in the control group — 89 percent vs. 22 percent.
This just underscores the ongoing need for education and awareness. We hope more physicians will take the time to educate ALL patients – high risk or not.
Valentine’s Day is upon us once again with another a way to show your love, and show your skin! According to the Skin Cancer Foundation couples with close bonds are about three times more likely to perform a mutual skin exam. Unofficial sources suggest those couples have more fun, too! But kidding aside, we all need to find every opportunity to scrutinize our skin, from head to between the toes. Here’s how. 
While dermatascopes and the analyses used at MoleSafe are the most effective in detecting skin cancers and Melanoma, being vigilant by starting with your own naked eye exam is important, too. AND it’s important for doctors to mandate that as well. Shockingly, only 59.6 percent of family practitioners and 56.4 percent of internists conduct regular full-body skin exams, compared to 81.3 percent of dermatologists. (We would like to know why it is not 100% of dermatologists, though.)
According to a story in Bloomberg Businessweek last month,
“The most common reasons for not performing this type of examination were patient embarrassment/reluctance, time constraints, and other patient illnesses.”
About half of the internists and family practitioners cited time constraints as an impediment to conducting the naked eye exams.
I find all those reasons unacceptable since taking five minutes is nothing compared to a diseases that takes lives.
Our post in 2009 here on Melanoma Updates publicized the suggestion that not only should medical students be trained in naked eye exams no matter their ultimate specialization, but asking your doctor to keep an eye open while checking your lungs and seeing your back, or seeing your legs while checking your reflexes.
So, show the love this year and start by checking yourself, check your mate, and check with your doctor.
Exactly six months ago, I shared a blog with Melanoma Updates readers, written by a woman chronicling her battle with Melanoma. I shared her story because I was impressed by her good attitude, helpful information, and generosity of spirit, and thought her blog would be helpful beyond her small community in Cyprus. Her name is Alethea Ayers and she is the 35 year old mother of a toddler.
While there are, sadly, many victims of skin cancers and Melanoma — hence the existence of Melanoma Updates and our goal of driving awareness and preventative actions, Alethea is one who has been inspiring and very public about her battle with the disease.
Now that battle has faced a two-sided assault: she has received news of some 10 brain tumors, and is also fighting to raise the funds to travel from Cyprus to Germany for more advanced treatments. As a physician I can say that this kind of metastasis is unfortunately statistically common in Melanoma patients, and survival rates are statistically unsatisfying. You can read more on brain metastases on the Skin Cancer Foundation Web site.
I can tell you I don’t know Alethea, and have not vetted her case or her cause, but between her Facebook page and very specific blog posts I find her story and attitude very compelling and worth the read… and perhaps a contribution. That is a personal decision, and there are many worthy causes we could all support. At the very least, I want to share her very human emotions in her latest post here, filled with reminders of what we’ve been touting at MoleSafe as well:
Getting hopeful with every passing day as it means a day closer to when I can start my treatment. I can’t wait till they start shrinking these darn things and I can start a normal life again.No one teaches you in school or as you grow up what do to in these situations, there’s no break glass in case of emergency and there is no instruction manual on what to do in case you get brain tumours. So I live every minute by the minute and make it through the day with all your wonderful help.
All I ask that you please please avoid sunbeds, and sunbathing. Please love the skin you are in. Milk bottle white, means you are alive and will be alive. Life is too precious.
Love the skin you are in.
Most doctors feel for their patients and we empathize with the challenges of their illness. We work to the best of our experience and understanding to find cures, solutions, or sometimes just more comfort. But when it comes to big challenges, such as advancing treatment options for diseases like Melanoma, sometimes empathy is not enough. Sometimes what sparks the motivation to find solutions or cures is personal experience….
That is what spurred e-commerce entrepreneur, Marty Tennenbaum. While he’s not a doctor or even medical researcher, he does know his way around computers, and the value of “open source” as a route to developing solutions. So, after surviving Melanoma in the late ’90s he begin applying his expertise to help move the needle on treatment solutions.
Many scientists today work in relative isolation, left to follow blind alleys and duplicate existing research. Data are fragmented — trapped behind firewalls, locked up by contracts or lost in databases that can’t be accessed or integrated. Materials are hard to get — universities are overwhelmed with transfer requests that ought to be routine, while grant cycles pass and windows of opportunity close.
Marty recognized that dilemma and his doing his part to use his tech know-how to bring about a tool to help solve that problem: An app.
Dr. Marty Tenenbaum, a survivor of melanoma, shows off his free Cancer Commons app
Launching today (1/18/11), the “Cancer Commons” app will integrate existing data about melanomas, and cross reference promising experimental treatments. Then, patients or doctors can in put patient-specific info on the progression of the disease including test results, such as specific genetic mutations.
“From that information, the app tells patients what specific cancer “subtype” they have as determined by an expert panel. They also learn what drugs have shown the most promise in treating that specific form of the disease and where clinical trials are being conducted that could allow patients access to that treatment.”
Marty explains that he’s just “trying to pull together all the pieces that are needed to do a real, rational attack on cancer.”
…’The way to do that,’ he says, ‘is to pull people out of their individual labs, offices and hospitals to collaborate in a way not possible before the Web and mobile technologies made it easy to pool vast amounts of information.
‘How much of cancer could be turned into a manageable disease if we only knew what we knew?’”
It’s a challenge to wrap our arms around the collected knowledge of thousands of researchers. Groups like Health Commons and Open Science are taking a page from today’s socially networked world to tap that trust and are working to throw open the doors to the brain trust. MoleSafe and Melanoma Updates applauds this approach, and gives Marty Tennenbaum and the collected participants pitching in a big Hat’s On Award to helping shine the light on the way to a cure for Melanoma and other cancers.
