BPAC (Best Practice Advisory Centre) has recently released its latest primary care update - a comprehensive article on "Reducing the burden of melanoma in New Zealand” which covers prevention, risk assessment and early detection.
Multidisciplinary experts from the European Dermatology Forum (EDF), the European Association of Dermato-Oncology (EADO), and the European Organization of Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) have formed new guidelines on cutaneous melanoma diagnosis and treatment.
According to this recent study, anti-PD1 antibodies appear effective and well tolerated in older patients with advanced melanoma.
According to this recent Australian study diagnostic suspicion does not influence preference for partial over excisional biopsy, however using partial biopsy to diagnose melanoma often leads to an extra procedure for definitive treatment compared with excisional biopsy.
According to this recent study, the use of dabrafenib monotherapy for treatment-naive or previously treated BRAF V600E/K-mutant metastatic melanoma can result in durable outcomes of five years or more in a subset of patients. The study also demonstrates progression-free and overall survival with dabrafenib may plateau after 36 months and long-term treatment with dabrafenib monotherapy is well tolerated.
This recent study suggests PD-L1 expression on circulating tumour cells may predict response to pembrolizumab in advanced melanoma.
This recent study demonstrates how pathologists' treatment suggestions vary significantly for melanocytic lesions, concluding there is a need for standardisation of treatment guidelines for all melanocytic lesion types.
This recent study suggests understanding occupational history and possible UV radiation exposures are essential to distinguish occupational from nonoccupational skin cancers. Effective prevention programs should include employer policy, worker education, and environmental controls.
A newly developed convolutional neural network (CNN) was able to diagnose skin cancer as accurately as dermatologists, without manual preselection of suspicious lesions, according to this recent study.
According to this recent study, interactions between genotype and environment are consistent with divergent pathways for melanoma development.