Word: melanoma
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Like most modern presidential races, this year's campaign has given us its fair share of health lessons. First there was Bill Bradley's atrial fibrillation. Then we learned about Dick Cheney's heart attacks and bypass surgery. Now Senator John McCain is fighting a renewed battle against malignant melanoma, the deadliest and most aggressive form of skin cancer, whose incidence has grown dramatically over the past 50 years. McCain's office reported last week that doctors found two cancerous lesions--one on his left temple and the other on his left arm. An earlier melanoma was removed from...
...McCain and his family are all too aware, his outlook for recovery depends in large part on how deep the new melanomas are and whether they have spread. Surgery cures 95% of malignant melanomas that are confined to the top layer of skin. Once the cancer penetrates farther or reaches the lymph nodes, the chances of survival decline rapidly. Fortunately, McCain's lesions appear to be new growths that are unrelated to each other or to the melanoma he had removed...
...trying to improve on the primitive techniques doctors use to guide their fight against cancer. Currently, pathologists use the location of a tumor in the patient's body and its appearance under a microscope to determine what sort of malignancy is involved. It works often--but not always. Melanoma, for example, starts out as a skin cancer but may end up in the lung or breast, where it can be much more damaging than primary lung or breast cancer...
SOLAR RADIATION & SUN LAMPS A deep tan may look nice, but is it worth the melanoma and other skin cancers it leads...
...most promising natural wonder drugs come from compounds not usually associated with healing: poisons. Merck is marketing a blood thinner based on the venom of the deadly saw-scaled viper. A protein from another Asian pit viper is being studied because it appears to inhibit the spread of melanoma cells, and a compound called SNX-482 from the venom of the Cameroon red tarantula may lead to new treatments for neurological disorders...