Melanoma News and Research

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Melanoma is a form of cancer that begins in melanocytes (cells that make the pigment melanin). It may begin in a mole (skin melanoma), but can also begin in other pigmented tissues, such as in the eye or in the intestines.

MIT researchers discover new way to awaken the immune system to attack tumors

Immunotherapy is a promising strategy to treat cancer by stimulating the body's own immune system to destroy tumor cells, but it only works for a handful of cancers. MIT researchers have now discovered a new way to jump-start the immune system to attack tumors, which they hope could allow immunotherapy to be used against more types of cancer.

20 Oct 2021

Novel T cells reside in lymph nodes and offer protection against melanoma

Immunotherapy is an advancing field but there is limited knowledge on the immunity to metastatic tumors in locations like lymph nodes.

20 Sep 2021

Vaccinating against certain cancer proteins can boost overall immune response and shrink tumors

Over the past decade, scientists have been exploring vaccination as a way to help fight cancer. These experimental cancer vaccines are designed to stimulate the body's own immune system to destroy a tumor, by injecting fragments of cancer proteins found on the tumor.

17 Sep 2021

Hundreds of mutated tumor suppressor genes can help cancer cells evade the immune system

Hundreds of cancer-linked genes play a different role in causing disease than scientists had expected.

17 Sep 2021

New treatment developed from plant virus could keep metastatic cancers at bay

Using a virus that grows in black-eyed pea plants, nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego developed a new treatment that could keep metastatic cancers at bay from the lungs.

15 Sep 2021

Researchers generate first "atlas" of human melanocytes in the body

Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah (U of U) have generated the first "atlas" of human melanocytes located throughout the body.

3 Sep 2021

Study reveals how two separate DNA changes may predict aggressive childhood leukemias

New research published today in JAMA Oncology reports how two separate DNA changes appear to predict aggressive childhood leukemias when they occur in combination.

20 Aug 2021

Study reveals melanoma is associated with a chemical conversion in DNA

According to recent research, the mutations giving rise to melanoma are the outcome of a chemical conversion in DNA triggered by sunlight.

3 Aug 2021

Study: Biomarker can predict response to immunotherapies in breast cancer patients

A biomarker that has proven to be a predictor for response to immunotherapies in melanoma patients also has clinical relevance for breast cancer patients, according to a new study published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

28 Jul 2021

New study could prevent T cell exhaustion in the immune system’s fight against cancer

Struggling against a tumor is not a sprint. It is a marathon. The race of cancer-fighting T cells is at times simply very long, and the T cells give up fighting. This phenomenon is referred to as T cell exhaustion by researchers.

21 Jul 2021

New method can improve the efficacy of promising treatment for recurrent glioblastoma

A promising treatment for melanoma and other types of cancers is neoadjuvant immune checkpoint blockade (ICB).

1 Jul 2021

Presence of certain stem cells correlates with non-genetic resistance mechanisms to cancer drugs

Cancer cells can develop resistance to therapy through both genetic and non-genetic mechanisms. But it is unclear how and why one of these routes to resistance prevails.

18 Jun 2021

Natural killer cells target breast cancer using the body’s immune system

In a recent study, researchers investigated how natural killer cells target breast cancer using the body's own immune system.

18 Jun 2021

Commonly used antidepressant drugs can also help the immune system to attack cancer

A class of drug called monoamine oxidase inhibitors is commonly prescribed to treat depression; the medications work by boosting levels of serotonin, the brain's "happiness hormone."

10 Jun 2021

New insights on how synovial sarcoma develops and spreads

A new study published today in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, reports findings that may change the understanding of how synovial sarcoma develops and spreads.

7 Jun 2021

Immune therapy after surgery reduces recurrence risk in patients with high-risk melanoma

Patients with high-risk melanoma who had a course of pembrolizumab after their surgery had a longer time before their disease recurred than patients who got either ipilimumab or high-dose interferon after surgery. These findings of a large SWOG Cancer Research Network clinical trial, S1404, will be presented at the ASCO annual meeting June 6, 2021.

4 Jun 2021

Study: Turning off molecular switch could help treat melanoma

Melanoma accounts for only about 1% of skin cancers but leads to most of the skin cancer-related deaths.

20 May 2021

Cancer immunotherapy patients experience potentially life-threatening side effects

Many patients with cancer receive immune checkpoint inhibitors that strengthen their immune response against tumor cells. While the medications can be life-saving, they can also cause potentially life-threatening side effects in internal organs.

13 Apr 2021

Study finds an amyloid link between melanoma and Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder and melanoma is a type of skin cancer but on the surface, these disorders do not seem to have much in common.

8 Apr 2021

Customized tumor cell vaccine produces active immune response in melanoma, neuroblastoma models

A pre-clinical study for melanoma and neuroblastoma shows that a customized tumor cell vaccine technique that targets Myc oncogenes coupled with checkpoint therapy produces an active immune response that bypasses antigen selection and immune privilege.

5 Apr 2021