FRIDAY, July 11 (HealthDay News) -- A chemically modified form of interferon improves the chances that melanoma patients will survive and have no recurrence of the skin cancer, according to a new report.

Dutch researchers, who published their findings in this week's edition of The Lancet, said their study found long-term treatment with pegylated IFNa2b cut the risk of a recurrence by 15 percent over a four-year period.

A study published in the July 10 online edition of the Journal of Investigative Dermatology states that the number of melanoma cases among women has increased 50% between 1980 and 2004, while the rates for men leveled off. The study was conducted on men and women aged 15-39 and suggests that there has been no significant result of skin cancer education upon young women.

ATLANTA - An Oregon man, given less than a year to live, had a complete remission of advanced deadly skin cancer after an experimental treatment that revved up his immune system to fight the tumors.

The 52-year-old patient's dramatic turnaround was the only success in a small study, leading doctors to be cautious in their enthusiasm. However, the treatment reported in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine is being counted as the latest in a small series of successes involving immune-priming treatments against deadly skin cancers.