Skin Cancer

A recent study suggests that genes such as ERBB2, KIT, FGFR3, and RET might be relevant in the treatment of individual patients with cutaneous melanoma.

The past decade has seen significant advances in the understanding of molecular pathogenesis of skin cancer leading to the development of targeted treatments and immunotherapies that have dramatically improved progression free survival and even overall survival in melanoma, basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and even some rarer cutaneous carcinomas.

Cell-free circulating DNA (cfDNA) can provide a useful snapshot of the BRAF and NRAS genotype of melanoma patients’ tumor tissue and act as a useful surrogate to assessing tissue biopsies for the markers, a recent study suggests.

IDO inhibitors have recently emerged as a new and exciting class of anticancer drugs. Learn more about this and other immunotherapy treatments in this article.

Doctors suggest that cytokine antagonists may lessen the severity of the rash.

Combining antibody IgG2a with a TNF protein shows promise against melanoma in mouse studies.

Treatment options for metastatic melanoma have greatly improved, including in the adjuvant setting, and these advances are reflected in the recently updated American Academy of Dermatology clinical guidelines on the management of primary cutaneous melanoma. Find out what has changed in this article.

What is a life worth? Does it come down to dollars and cents? A recent study examines these questions in light of current and projected costs of melanoma treatment.

Reimbursements for actinic keratosis treatments are down slightly, but the demand for treatment is up by 20 percent.

Topical 5‐fluorouracil is FDA-approved to treat actinic keratoses and superficial basal cell carcinoma, but it is commonly used off-label to treat a number of other skin conditions, such as squamous cell carcinoma despite strong evidence.

Literature review shows that laser-assisted photodynamic therapy more efficacious than photodynamic therapy alone for actinic keratosis.

The American Academy of Dermatology has updated its guidelines for the care and management of primary cutaneous melanoma. The guidelines, which were released this week, cover the treatment of primary cutaneous melanoma for all age groups.

At the Fall Clinical Dermatology Conference in Las Vegas, one practical talk with a lot of takeaways was a workshop on two types of diagnostic tests for mole genomics.

Topical 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), which is FDA approved for treating actinic keratoses and superficial basal cell carcinoma, shows the strongest evidence of effectiveness for these two conditions plus squamous cell carcinoma, according to a comprehensive systematic review.

Superficial radiation therapy (SRT) targets only skin cancer cells and has few side effects, researchers reported at the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery annual meeting.

Study finds daylight photodynamic therapy with ablative fractional laser more effective than with microdermabrasion for treating actinic keratoses with large area field cancerization.

Prompt management of skin cancer lesions is stressed for pregnant patients in a recent article in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, but whether it’s applied in clinical practice is unknown.

Stage II melanoma patients don’t always benefit from staging PET-CT, according to Duke University Medical Center researchers reporting last week at American Society of Dermatologic Surgery annual meeting in Phoenix.

Patients in outpatient primary care clinics are choosing to learn about genomic testing to detemine their risk of melanoma, according to a recent clinical trial. 

Dermatofibrosarcoma is a common, but unusual locally aggressive cutaneous tumor. Its characteristic tentacle can grow into surrounding fat, muscle and even bone. For dermatologists this means that understanding treatment options is a priority, says a physician reporting from EADV 2018.

Is it just a “spot” or precancerous lesion? Two physicians debate how best to treat actinic keratosis in a talk given at EADV last week.

There are many non-surgical treatments for basal cell carcinomas, but a physician reporting at EADV last week said new treatments should be compared against surgery, which has the highest cure rate and lowest rate of recurrence.

A pregnancy-associated melanoma (PAM) prognosis does not appear to be worse than melanoma in non-pregnant controls, researchers reported at EADV. Nonetheless, measures should be taken to protect the fetus in the treatment and imaging of PAM.

Potential new treatment with targeted monoclonal antibodies offers new hope for cutaneous lymphoma patients.

With immunotherapy as a key treatment for melanoma, dermatologists should be prepared to treat its cutaneous side effects and refer for adrenal sufficiency, uveitis, thyroid disease and other non-cutaneous side effects.