Drug Combats Melanoma Up to Ninety Percent - This Is NOT Dr Oz

There are multiple types of skin cancer and I've been graced with many of them but melanoma is the one which usually kills people and that one has left me alone.   Even if it does come, there may soon be something effective to do about it.  (Science Daily:  Promising new drug stops spread of melanoma by 90 percent)

Michigan State University researchers have discovered that a chemical compound, and potential new drug, reduces the spread of melanoma cells by up to 90 percent.

The human-made, small-molecule drug compound goes after a gene's ability to produce RNA molecules and certain proteins in melanoma tumors.  This gene activity, or transcription process, causes the disease to spread but the compound can shut it down.  Up until now, few other compounds of this kind have been able to accomplish this.

- SD

The science is novel since the compound has been used previously for another disease but the discovery now is its efficacy with melanoma.

"It's been a challenge developing small-molecule drugs that can block this gene activity that works as a signaling mechanism known to be important in melanoma progression," said Richard Neubig, a pharmacology professor and co-author of the study. "Our chemical compound is actually the same one that we've been working on to potentially treat the disease scleroderma, which now we've found works effectively on this type of cancer."

Scleroderma is a rare and often fatal autoimmune disease that causes the hardening of skin tissue, as well as organs such as the lungs, heart and kidneys. The same mechanisms that produce fibrosis, or skin thickening, in scleroderma also contribute to the spread of cancer.

- SD

It's not clear how long it will take this type of compound to get through any approval process since there's still more research they need to do to fully understand the process.  Their warning about melanoma goes two ways, however.

According to Neubig, if the disease is caught early, chance of death is only 2 percent. If caught late, that figure rises to 84 percent.

"The majority of people die from melanoma because of the disease spreading," he said. "Our compounds can block cancer migration and potentially increase patient survival."

- SD

They stress the importance of early detection and our own attentiveness is as important for keeping us alive as any medication.  In my own case, I saw something which I did not think looked right but I wasn't sure.  I posted a pic here on Ithaka and Pink saw it.  He asked a doctor friend who said something to the effect of it doesn't look malignant but it would be prudent to be sure.

Doctor Sam saw it and said, yep, it's malignant.  He removed it immediately and that was the first in a series of surgeries which have taken place since.  That was not some futile effort to stop something which will kill me anyway since none of the skin cancers have been melanoma.  The surgeries are to try to keep it that way.

Here you have some science and some real life regarding skin cancer.  Do as you will but also be aware white people show a sharply higher risk of skin cancer than any other races.  That Coppertone tan really only works if you're born with it.