Skin Cancer

Jason J. Luke, MD, an instructor in medicine atHarvard Medical School and a Medical Oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, explains why oncology nurses have such an important role in managing melanoma toxicities.

In February 2002, I was diagnosed with stage I melanoma.

The addition of the GM-CSF agent sargramostim to the CTLA-4 inhibitor ipilimumab (Yervoy) prolonged overall survival (OS) and lowered toxicity for patients with unresectable stage III or IV melanoma.

A new study has found that nearly one third of cancer patients suffer from anxiety or other mental health challenges, with breast cancer patients, head and neck cancer patients and melanoma patients suffering the most.

The FDA has approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for the treatment of advanced melanoma, making it the first PD-1 inhibitor to receive approval in the United States and marking yet another milestone breakthrough for patients who once had little hope of surviving this disease.

Brianna Hoffner, MSN, RN, ANP-BC, AOCNP, nurse practitioner, The Angeles Clinic and Research Institute, discusses how to monitor the adverse events in patients receiving treatment for melanoma.

Tim Turnham, executive director, Melanoma Research Foundation, provides an overview of some of the services offered by the Melanoma Research Foundation.

A new study has shown that the risk of developing melanoma was more closely related to sun exposure in early life than in adulthood in young Caucasian women.

A 10-year follow-up study of regional melanoma staging strategies found that patients who underwent sentinel-node biopsies had significantly greater disease-free survival rates (DFSRs) compared with patients monitored through nodal observation.

A study of patients with metastatic melanoma found that those who spent more time in hospice care lived almost four months longer than similar patients who had little or no hospice care, and that end-of-life costs dropped for those with more time in hospice.

Nivolumab, a PD-1-specific antibody, has been shown to produce long-term remissions with limited toxicity in patients with advanced melanoma, according to results from one of the longest follow ups to examine the drug

Matthew Burke, MBA, RN, MSN, APRN-BC, Oncology Nurse Practitioner/Melanoma and Renal Cell Carcinoma, Yale New Haven Hospital, discusses managing immune-mediated adverse events (IMAEs)

Advances in precision medicine for the treatment of melanoma include novel small-molecule inhibitors targeting signal transduction pathways in BRAF and NRAS mutations and cutting-edge drugs in the area of immune-modulation, whereby the patient's own immune system is mobilized to attack the tumor.

Matthew Burke, MBA, RN, MSN, APRN-BC, Oncology Nurse Practitioner/Melanoma and Renal Cell Carcinoma, Yale New Haven Hospital, discusses the difference between adverse events caused by chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

The results emerging from the PD-1/PD-L1 trials mark a major step forward, noted Rajni Kannan, MN, RN, ANP, in a recent interview on the implications of this research for multiple cancers, including melanoma

Immunotherapy has become an increasingly appealing therapeutic strategy for patients with cancer, with many late-stage clinical trials demonstrating overall survival (OS) advantages in melanoma and castration-resistant prostate cancer.

The FDA has approved the first-ever targeted therapy combination for patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma who harbor a BRAF V600E or V600K mutation

Underlying mechanism for increased risk now defined.

Melanoma is on the rise in children and teenagers.

Rajni Kannan discusses the importance patient education or managing the side effects associated ipilimumab and vemurafenib in metastatic melanoma.

The incidence of melanoma, the deadliest of all skin cancers, is quickly rising, and the disease is responsible for more than 8000 deaths each year.

Kathleen Madden, from NYU Langone Medical Center, on the Importance Educating Patients About Ipilimumab's Side Effects.

Researchers find that people who took NSAIDs were less likely to develop skin cancer.

Krista Rubin, from Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, on Understanding Ipilimumab's Toxicities.

After a long fight with melanoma, the Roman Catholic parish priest Father Arthur Humphrey was able to receive the immunotherapeutic agent Yervoy, which greatly improved his prognosis.

As an immunotherapy, Yervoy presents a unique set of side effects and it was approved along with a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy to address these events.

Personal perspectives from oncology nurses of abstracts presented at ASCO on research with the potential to change practice, important studies that failed to meet expectations, and topics particularly relevant to oncology nurses.

Sun exposure to usually-covered skin is yet another risk for skin cancer.

Dana Monroe from San Francisco Oncology Associates on Yervoy Side Effects and How Oncology Nurses Can Self-Educate

Useful Online Resources and Clinical Trials for Melanoma