Tag Archives: science

Smartphone Apps No Match for Identifying Amelanotic Melanoma

It’s not recent, but a 2012 research study concluded that smartphone apps that are supposed to help people with identifying suspicious moles and growths actually are unreliable. In turn, people delay getting treatment for something. And as we all know, particularly with melanoma, delays are not a good thing. The study, conducted by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a… Read more »

So Are Antioxidants Helpful or Not?

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Antioxidants have been promoted as being wonder substances, capable of fighting aging, cancer, and all kinds of other harmful things. But a new report from the researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center suggests the opposite – antioxidants may promote the growth of cancer – in mice. The researchers transplanted melanoma cells treated with antioxidants or nothing to… Read more »

Skin Cancer Doesn’t Always Equal Moles

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Amelanotic nodular melanoma obviously is one of the prime examples of skin cancer not arising from an existing mole. At least, in my experience, that is true. Now a study reported in June 2015 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting has added its voice. According to the analysis of researchers, they discovered that non-mole melanomas “tend to be… Read more »

Using herpes to cure melanoma?

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A friend of mine sent me a recent article from Fox News. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that Fox News is not exactly a bastion of medical or scientific reporting in my book. But the article talks about how researchers at a cancer institute in Utah is engineering the herpes virus and injecting them directly into melanoma tumors…. Read more »

Melanoma rates jumping – in Iowa

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There was a report on the Iowa Public Radio recently that shows that the rates of melanoma are dramatically increasing. According to the Director of the University of Iowa’s Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dr. George Weiner, the increase can be considered an epidemic. Now, Iowa is not exactly Florida, right? So what is causing this tremendous increase? Dr. Weiner notes that… Read more »

BRAF Inhibitor Resistance and other things I’m learning

Because of my diagnosis of melanoma late last year, I find myself reading information about the disease. Sometimes, I stumble across information I had no idea even existed. Today, I came across an article that highlighted the efforts of researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Since I live in Texas, I’m always interested in what the… Read more »