This recent study concludes that although it clearly demonstrates that many National Sporting Organisations lack adequate health-related policies, this was not necessarily a conscious choice, but the result of a lack of resources, other priorities, or just that they had not considered developing policies in these areas.
Te Aho o Te Kahu, Cancer Control Agency have released their analysis of cancer medicine availability in New Zealand Aotearoa. This report analyses what cancer medicines are publicly funded in Australia compared to Aotearoa.
According to this recent study, advocates identified a number of key strategies that were used to gain momentum in achieving Australia's comprehensive Sunsmart program. These included: strong leadership, legislation including that banning solaria and workplace health and safety legislation, a critical mass of key advocates from a range of disciplines including clinicians and patients, and the advantageous use of media to drive change. The challenge for other nations is to apply the lessons learnt in Australia to our own jurisdictions.
By combining clinical and administrative data, this study on real-world clinical practice showed that almost one in ten cutaneous malignant melanoma patients did not undergo wide local excision surgery. Monitoring how diagnostic-therapeutic protocols are actually implemented in the real world may contribute significantly to promoting quality improvements in the management of oncological patients.
Neoadjuvant systemic therapy could potentially tailor the extent of surgery and/or any adjuvant systemic therapy, based on the pathologic response obtained for melanoma patients. The first phase I and II trials investigating anti-PD1 inhibitors, both as a single agent and in combination with anti-CTLA-4 inhibitors or other therapeutic agents, have shown promising results.
According to this recent study, treatment-naive BRAF-mutant melanoma has a distinct immune context compared with BRAF wild type melanoma, with significantly decreased CD8+ T cells and increased B cells and CD4+ T cells in the tumor microenvironment. These findings indicate that further mechanistic studies are warranted to reveal how this difference in immune context leads to improved outcome to combination immune checkpoint blockade in BRAF-mutant melanoma.
According to this recent study, a see-and-treat model to offer earlier skin cancer diagnosis and treatment was shown to reduce wait times and cost, along with high levels of patient satisfaction. It was also easily implemented using pre-existing infrastructure. It is a service that continues to be offered and expanded, with ongoing patient satisfaction.
Ferroptosis, a new pathway of cell death depending on the intracellar iron, has been shown to be significantly associated with apoptosis of a number of tumors, including melanoma. According to this recent study, the ferroptosis-related gene (FRG) prognostic model established by the authors can predict the prognosis of melanoma patients and may further guide subsequent treatment.
According to this recent cohort study, melanomas diagnosed through routine skin checks were associated with significantly lower all-cause mortality, but not melanoma-specific mortality, after adjustment for patient, sociodemographic, and clinicopathologic factors.
Accordong to this recent pilot of a randomized clinical trial, patient-led surveillance after treatment of localized melanoma appears to be safe, feasible, and acceptable. Experiences from this pilot study have prompted improvements to the trial processes for the larger trial of the same intervention.