Perspective: Melanoma diagnosis and monitoring: Sunrise for melanoma therapy but early detection remains in the shade
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Published version
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DOI
Authors
Spanjaard, Remco
Weaver, David
Erramilli, Shyamsunder
Mohanty, Pritiraj
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OA Version
Citation
Remco Spanjaard, David Weaver, Shyamsunder Erramilli, Pritiraj Mohanty. "Perspective: Melanoma diagnosis and monitoring: Sunrise for melanoma therapy but early detection remains in the shade."
Abstract
Melanoma is one of the most dangerous forms of cancer. The five-year survival rate is 98% if it is detected early. However, this rate plummets to 63% for regional disease and 17% when tumors have metastasized, that is, spread to distant sites. Furthermore, the incidence of melanoma has been rising by about 3% per year, whereas the incidence of cancers that are more common is decreasing. A handful of targeted therapies have recently become available that have finally shown real promise for treatment, but for reasons that remain unclear only a fraction of patients respond long term. These drugs often increase survival by only a few months in metastatic patient groups before relapse occurs. More effective treatment may be possible if a diagnosis can be made when the tumor burden is still low. Here, an overview of the current state-of-the-art is provided along with an argument for newer technologies towards early point-of-care diagnosis of melanoma.
Description
Last revised 25 Jul 2016.