The number of incidences of skin cancer is growing in the United States and around the world. More people have developed skin cancer in the last 31 years than all other types of cancer combined. Twenty percent of Americans will develop skin cancer during their lifetimes. In fact, 40-50% of those over age 65 will have to deal with skin cancer at least once in their lives.1
This is why there is much research currently being done on skin cancer in an effort to find more effective treatments for those skin cancers that we can already cure (mostly skin cancers that are detected early) and for those skin cancers that are much harder or impossible to cure (mostly skin cancers that aren’t detected until their latter stages).
Advancements in Understanding How Skin Cancer Works
Over the past few years, scientists have begun to understand how ultraviolet (UV) light damages a person’s DNA and causes normal skin cells to become cancerous. Researchers are continuing studies and formulating new strategies and treatments in order to utilize this new information so as to provide better ways to prevent and treat skin cancer.2
Topical Medications that Can Prevent Future Cancers
There are clinical trials being conducted on topical medications to be used on actinic keratoses (precancerous skin lesions) to see if they can prevent cancers from reoccurring.3
Imiquimod to Help Provide Better, More Complete Treatment
Imiquimod is a type of prescription medication that works to initiate a response from one’s immune system in order to get the immune system to battle the skin cancer. It has been approved to treat actinic keratoses, basal cell carcinoma that is on just the skin, squamous cell carcinoma that is on just the skin, and also some malignant melanomas that have not penetrated beyond the skin.4
Imiquimod has also been shown to cause lesions that cannot be identified clinically to manifest themselves to where they can be clinically detected. This allows for doctors to be able to treat these lesions to further improve the treatment regimen of the patient.4
There is continuing research to further define the most effective uses of Imiquimod.
EGFR Inhibitors Could Lead to a Possible Treatment for Advanced or Metastasizing Skin Cancers
EGFR (Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor) inhibitors are tumor proteins that help cancer cells grow. These are present with many squamous cell carcinomas. Research is currently being conducted to determine if drugs that inhibit EGFR can be used to help reduce or treat skin cancer that is in advanced stages or that has metastasized (i.e. has spread to far-reaching organs and tissues beyond the area near the origin of the skin cancer).3
“Hedgehog Pathway” Inhibitors Exhibit a New Type of Treatment Strategy Against Skin Cancers
“Hedgehog Pathway” inhibitors (known as “GDC-0449”) are being used in people who exhibit the PTCH1 genetic mutation that contributes to the exploding growth of basal cell carcinoma. This type of treatment is known as “targeted therapy,” and it relies upon the idea that treatment should attack the cancer cells based upon their specific proteins, genes, or the tissue environment that is contributing to the abnormal cells’ survival and growth.5
Newer skin cancer treatments, such as targeted treatments, are focusing on turning off a signal within the cancer cells to divide or to delay the death of the individual cells, thereby causing them to be eliminated from the body.5 This differs from older treatments, such as chemotherapy, which would attempt to keep the cancer cells from dividing into new cancer cells.
Providing Better Supportive Care to Improve a Patient’s Quality of Life
In addition to finding new treatments for skin cancer, clinical trials are currently being conducted to find better methods of giving patients more comfort and quality of life when dealing with advanced skin cancer. This includes finding methods that help to reduce the number and the severity of symptoms and side effects of current treatments for skin cancer.
Goals in the Fight Against Melanoma
The University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) is just one institution that is taking up the fight to improve the chances of surviving against the most dangerous skin cancer, melanoma.
Through various federal and foundation grants, UPCI is currently studying the following topics:
- The markers of risk that indicate a person will develop melanoma and the responsiveness to various treatments for melanoma
- Targeted drug therapies that are aimed at the molecules of the abnormal cells in a better effort to eliminate them
- New processes and molecules that can be used to counteract and overcome melanoma’s resistance to traditional and current therapies
- Examining genes and proteins that shape the development and progression of melanoma skin cancer
- Examining new combinations of therapies that were only previously used alone to determine their effectiveness against melanoma6
Ongoing Research and New Knowledge Give Hope to the Future of Treating and Curing Skin Cancer
We have learned much about the development and progression of skin cancer over the past few decades, leading to more effective treatments than excision surgery, such as chemotherapy, cryosurgery, radiation therapy, photodynamic therapy, laser surgery, and combinations of these treatments. This has led to better treatments of skin cancer than in the past. With continued research and testing, it is believed that we will make more breakthroughs against skin cancer and be able to offer even more effective treatments and hope for those battling skin cancer in the future.
References
1 The Skin Cancer Foundation – Skin Cancer Facts. (2011). The Skin Cancer Foundation: www.skincancer.org/Skin-Cancer-Facts/
2 What’s new in research and treatment of basal and squamous cell skin cancers? (2011). From The American Cancer Society: www.cancer.org/Cancer/SkinCancer-BasalandSquamousCell/DetailedGuide/
skin-cancer-basal-and-squamous-cell-new-research
3 Skin Cancer (Non-Melanoma): Current Research | Cancer.Net. (2011, July 27). From The American Society of Clinical Oncology: www.cancer.net/patient/Cancer+Types/Skin+Cancer+(Non-Melanoma)?section
Title=Current%20Research
4 Imiquimod Topical (2011 August 23). MedlinePlus. Retrieved from: www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a698010.html
5 Understanding Targeted Treatments | Cancer.Net. (2011, May 25). From The American Society of Clinical Oncology: www.cancer.net/patient/All+About+Cancer/Cancer.Net+Feature+Articles/
Treatments%2C+Tests%2C+and+Procedures/
Understanding+Targeted+Treatments
6 Current Research | About Melanoma and Skin Cancer | UPMC Cancer Centers. (2011). From the UPMC Cancer Centers: www.upmccancercenters.com/portal_mela/research.cfm
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