Skin cancer more common in men

imagesCancer Research UK said each year, the most serious type of skin cancer, malignant melanoma, kills 1,300 men and 900 women, a gap expected to widen, reports the BBC.Far more men than women are dying from skin cancer, despite similar numbers being diagnosed with the disease, a report from European scientists suggests.

“A reason could be men delaying seeking help, but biology may also play a part. Prof Julia Newton-Bishop, a Cancer Research UK dermatologist, suspects women have stronger immune systems.German researchers have already identified a gene that appears to make men, but not women, more susceptible to melanoma. Prof Newton-Bishop, from the University of Leeds, said: “Research has suggested the difference between the sexes could be in part because men are more likely to be diagnosed when melanoma is at a more advanced stage.

“But there also seem to be strong biological reasons behind the differences, and we’re working on research to better understand why men and women’s bodies deal with their melanomas in different ways. “Stage for stage, men do less well with this cancer so there’s something very important that this is telling us about how the body deals it. “We think it is something to do with the immune system rather than hormones because pre- and post-menopausal fare the same.” Continue reading “Skin cancer more common in men”

Tattoos that hide melanoma

Millions of Americans head to the tattoo parlor to get “inked” each year, but a new study suggests that getting a tattoo over a mole or birthmark may not be healthy. As WebMD reports:images

“That’s because having a tattoo over a mole especially can make it difficult to detect the development of skin cancer, the researchers said. Reporting July 31 in the journal JAMA Dermatology, researchers in Germany pointed to the case of a young man who developed melanoma on a pre-existing colored skin lesion (mole or birthmark) within a tattoo during and between phases of laser tattoo removal. Sixteen other cases of melanoma developing within tattoos have been reported in English-language journals, the study authors said.

“In general, tattoos should never be placed on pigmented lesions; if they are, the tattoos should never be treated by laser,” said the researchers, who were led by Dr. Laura Pohl of Laserklinik Karlsruhe. Dermatologists in the United States concur that moles should be no-go areas for tattoos. “Fifty percent of all melanomas develop in pre-existing moles,” said Dr. Hooman Khorasani of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City. “It is harder to do surveillance on moles that are covered by tattoos, as the tattoo ink camouflages the mole and sometimes interferes with some of the tools we use for detection.” Tattoo removal can make mole surveillance more difficult too, he said. Continue reading “Tattoos that hide melanoma”