Saturday, July 21, 2007

Familial Melanoma Monitoring Worthwhile

By David Douglas
NEW YORK JUL 17, 2007 (Reuters Health) - A program aimed at relatives of people with hereditary cutaneous melanoma and dysplastic nevus syndrome achieves beneficial results, Swedish researchers report in the July 1st issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
"Our study," lead investigator Dr. Johan Hansson told Reuters Health, "shows that a coordinated program aimed at detecting and performing preventive activities in kindreds with familial melanoma results in a low number of diagnosed melanomas during follow-up among participating family members, as well as early diagnosis of those melanomas that still do occur."
For the rest of the story link to site:http://www.cancerpage.com/news/article.asp?id=11122

3 comments:

Mary Lou said...

Early detection in familial candidates is very promising in curing this cancer. Great article.

posted by JoAnn said...

Great article, and thanks to "With Help" with ClustrMap etc.

Danielle said...

There is a great deal of familial melanoma research being done here in Utah at Huntsman Cancer Institute. For more information, contact Dr. Sancy A. Leachman, deputy director of the Tom C. Mathews Jr. Familial Melanoma Research Clinic.

We talk about this, too, in my book. Dr. Leachman was instrumental in the identification of the p16 gene mutation found in familial melanoma groups. It's pretty fascinating.

Keep in mind that most melanomas are caused by prolonged UV exposure over a person's lifetime. Yet, it is important to study familial melanomas as we strive to find better treatment and, especially, a cure.

I appreciate your blog, Chris. Thanks!

Danielle
info@cancercrusaders.org