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Recent numbers released by the American Academy of Dermatology revealed a dramatic spike in the incidence of melanoma cases among young women. Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer, and for women aged 18-39, its rates have increased by 800% from 1970 to 2009. In Caucasian women under 44, the number of cases has increased by just over 6% annually. (1) Now, in addition to being the most dangerous, melanoma is one of the most common cancers in young adults (especially young women). More than 7,000 people in the United States are expected to die of melanoma in...

Kristina Baum, 37, had an inauspicious start to distance running: She signed up for her first race, the Army Ten Miler, back in 2006 with zero training. “I thought I might as well just show up and try it, and see as far I can get,” she tells Runner’s World. She ran eight miles without stopping and walked the last two. The physical after-effects were rough—she threw up twice, and was in pain for days—but finishing the race completely hooked her on running. So she started training, and ran the Houston Half Marathon in 2007 and 2009. But at the...

RUSH: Bob McNair, the owner of the Houston Texans, passed away on Friday, I believe. I only met him one time on the golf course. I didn’t know him at all. He had been battling melanoma and I think leukemia for 20 years. Two or three years ago they thought that he had gone into remission and was cancer free. But he succumbed to the disease. He was 81. He was a genuinely self-made guy. He was born in Tampa and arrived in Houston with 700 bucks in his pocket. This is a true story. He got to Houston during...

Scientists have made a breakthrough discovery in the fight to cure cancer after finding that the venom from a deadly Australian spider can actually kill melanoma cells while leaving the surrounding healthy tissue unharmed.

The microbes make a compound that disrupts DNA formation in tumor cellsCertain skin-dwelling microbes may be anticancer superheroes, reining in uncontrolled cell growth. This surprise discovery could one day lead to drugs that treat or maybe even prevent skin cancer. The bacteria’s secret weapon is a chemical compound that stops DNA formation in its tracks. Mice slathered with one strain of Staphylococcus epidermidis that makes the compound developed fewer tumors after exposure to damaging ultraviolet radiation compared with those treated with a strain lacking the compound, researchers report online February 28 in Science Advances. The findings highlight “the potential of...

Former president Jimmy Carter announced Sunday that he’s stopping treatment for his brain cancer at the ripe age of 91. Inspiring as his story is, it’s hard not to wonder: how’d he do it? Turns out Carter was being treated with Keytruda, a new and highly promising immunotherapy drug that was approved not long after Carter was diagnosed. In August 2015, Carter announced that his aggressive melanoma — a deadly form of skin cancer — had spread to his brain, and it seemed pretty clear that he had only a few weeks left to live. Still, he underwent treatment at...

Full title: Actor Jon Polito, known for roles in Coen brother films 'The Big Lebowski' and 'Miller's Crossing,' dead at 65 Actor Jon Polito, who was best known for his roles in Coen brother films like "The Big Lebowski," "Miller's Crossing" and "Barton Fink," has died. He was 65.

Jimmy Carter announced Sunday that he no longer needs treatment for cancer, less than seven months after revealing he had been diagnosed with melanoma that spread to his brain. […] Carter’s spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said in an email that his doctors will continue to perform scans to ensure cancer cells have not returned, and Carter will “resume treatment if necessary.” A spokesman for Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute, where Carter has been treated, declined to comment on Sunday, citing patient privacy. Carter’s treatment plan for the aggressive form of cancer including a round of targeted radiation at several tumors on...

The federal government said Friday it would ban minors from using indoor tanning beds, taking action on an issue that many states are already handling. The Food and Drug Administration said the proposed measure was in response to 1.6 million minors using indoor tanning beds each year, according to 2013 federal data. The problem is that indoor tanning is a "known contributor to skin cancer," the agency said. People who have been exposed to radiation from tanning beds are 59 percent more likely to develop melanoma, a dangerous form of skin cancer, than those who never have used the beds,...

NEW YORK -- Two presidential campaigns ago, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin became a conservative superstar. Seven years later, the self-proclaimed "Mamma Grizzly" is calling 2015 one of the toughest years of her life. "Some things happened that I haven't talked about publicly, things like getting canned from a job I really liked, sort of out of the blue, because I called somebody out," she said. Palin was let go from her job as a Fox News political analyst in June.  "Next morning I got word, 'Oh, we no longer need you anymore,'" she recalled. "Yeah, it was a shock,...

At a press conference today, former President Jimmy Carter revealed the ways he is tackling the melanoma cancer that has spread to his brain and liver: He'll receive radiation, as well as another lesser-known treatment called immunotherapy. Up until now, most cancer patients only had a few options. They could get chemotherapy or radiation that kills cancerous cells and stops them from dividing, or surgery to cut out the disease. Yet the success rate of these options is far from perfect. Now a new kind of cancer treatment has come into play: immunotherapies. These treatments, which include Carter's infusion called...

ATLANTA — Former President Jimmy Carter said Thursday that doctors had found cancer on his brain and that he would begin radiation treatment later in the day. Mr. Carter, speaking at a news conference at the Carter Center here, said his health had been under scrutiny since May, when he had a cold while traveling in Guyana. The former president added that the cancer, which he said was melanoma, had been found in his liver, part of which was removed during a procedure on Aug. 3. He described the melanoma on his brain as four “very small spots.”

Abstract Here, we propose a new strategy for the treatment of early cancerous lesions and advanced metastatic disease, via the selective targeting of cancer stem cells (CSCs), a.k.a., tumor-initiating cells (TICs). We searched for a global phenotypic characteristic that was highly conserved among cancer stem cells, across multiple tumor types, to provide a mutation-independent approach to cancer therapy. This would allow us to target cancer stem cells, effectively treating cancer as a single disease of “stemness”, independently of the tumor tissue type. Using this approach, we identified a conserved phenotypic weak point – a strict dependence on mitochondrial biogenesis for...

***SNIP*** At 26 weeks pregnant, Taylor was determined to prolong the delivery for as long as possible, but her liver started failing. Luke was born weighing 1 pound 15 ounces. Doctors whisked him away to the neonatal intensive care unit at Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City before his mother, who was taken directly to the intensive care unit, father or any of his five siblings were able to spend time with him. Shortly after the delivery, Taylor’s children and her husband, Nate, were brought in to say their final goodbyes to her. Doctors said she had only 24...

Without any objection, the Senate has passed a bill forcing the FDA to speed up the approval process for sunscreen technology, HAPPI reports.Sunscreen technology has stagnated in the United States since the 1990s, not because companies have failed to innovate, but because the Food and Drug Administration has been sitting on proposals submitted 12 years ago without even reviewing them.The proposals include new sunscreen ingredients, and since the FDA has dropped the ball, the Senate has picked it up with the passage of the Sunscreen Innovation Act on Wednesday night.Rates of melanoma have skyrocketed in the last 40 years, giving...

Australian actor Hugh Jackman said on Thursday that he had a skin cancer scare when doctors diagnosed a mark on his nose as cancerous cells. Jackman, 45, posted a photo of his face and a bandage on his nose on his Instagram page, saying his wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, told him to get his nose checked, and he was diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma, cancerous cells that grow on the surface of the skin. "Please don't be foolish like me. Get yourself checked. And USE sunscreen!!!" the "Les Miserables" actor said in the Instagram caption. Representatives for Jackman had no updates...

Scientists have developed breakthrough drugs that cure skin cancer. The treatment is already having “spectacular” effects in seriously ill melanoma patients—and could soon be used to defeat other types of cancer. … One in six patients ravaged by deadly skin cancer are already being cured by the drugs, the European Cancer Congress was told yesterday, with the possibility of more than half being saved with an new combination. … The first is ipilimumab—or “IPI”. According to research presented to the European congress in Amsterdam yesterday, 17 percent of patients are cured by this drug alone. But many more—perhaps more than...

I'm humbly asking for prayers from the FReeper community for my father-in-law. We learned today he was diagnosed with a "very aggressive strain" of melanoma. He is scheduled for surgery next Friday. There will also be a CAT scan to determine if lymph nodes are involved. If you could spare "Bud" a moment in your prayers, and my husband as well because he's quite worried (and doing his best to pretend otherwise). Thank you all so much.

Fair skin and red hair first appeared around the time people settled in Europe and still remains a dominant gene in southern Europeans today, even if they become tanned. Known as V6OL allele, the gene made skin lighter as humans were getting less vitamin D from no longer being in the harsh African sun , the study reported. However it brought with it health risks as it is commonly associated with melanoma - a serious form of skin cancer. Researchers made the discovery while examining the evolutionary processes of particular genes of 1,000 people from Spain. Study author Dr Saioa...

Exclusive: Cancer - A cure just got closer thanks to a tiny British company - and the result could change lives of millions That's the complete title. Here's the link.