The number of new melanoma cases, the most serious form of skin cancer, have been increasing each year for the last 30 years, to include more young people from 15-29 years of age. By 2015, the American Academy of Dermatology estimates that 1 in 50 Americans will develop melanoma in their lifetime.
About 75 percent of skin cancer deaths are from melanoma, according to the AAD. The main reason melanoma is deadly is due to its spread, or metastases.
Now a new study based on the pioneering work of Dr. Claire Lugassy and Dr. Raymond Barnhill, a husband and wife research team at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, offers additional proof of how deadly melanoma cells spread in the body.
It is well established that melanoma cells can spread through the blood to accumulate and form new tumors in other parts of the body away from the original tumor. This is how a small, seemingly unimportant, skin cancer becomes life-threatening by spreading to the brain, lungs, liver or other organs.
The UCLA team also found that melanoma cells are tendriled and can travel throughout the body by “creeping like tiny spiders” along the outside of blood vessels or nerves until they reach an organ or other point where they accumulate to form new tumors.
Perhaps just as remarkable, the cells can do this without ever entering the blood stream. Lugassy and Barnhill termed this phenomenon “extravascular migratory metastasis” or EVMM.
Although Lugassy and Barnhill’s initial finding was once controversial, it has now revolutionized knowledge about how cancer spreads from its origin, known as primary melanoma, to distant organs of the body where they grow secondary tumors.
“EVMM potentially explains why there is a delay between the detection of the primary cancer and the appearance of distant metastasis,” Barnhill said in a statement.
In this latest study, published March 6, 2014 in the journal Nature, Lugassy and Barnhill’s team at UCLA collaborated with a team from the University of Bonn, Germany, led by Dr. Thomas Tüting, to show that exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a catalyst of melanoma cell migration.
In the study, UV radiation triggered the immune system of mice implanted with melanoma cells to respond with inflammation, a marker that can signal cancer is present. When some of the mice were repeatedly exposed to UV radiation, those mice ultimately developed more lung tumors than those not exposed to UV radiation.
The mice exposed to Intermittent intense UV exposure developed skin damage which led to cell mutations, inflammation and stimulated cancer cells to migrate from the primary tumor to new areas of the body.
“We have known for a long time that UV radiation is a factor in the development of melanoma,” Barnhill said, “but in this study the melanoma was already present in the mice. Now we know UV radiation plays a greater role in melanoma metastases than what was once imagined.”
Lugassy and Barnhill’s work has been substantiated. The scientific community can now begin looking for a drug target that will interfere with this process, with the hope of creating a treatment that will stop blood vessel cell migration.
The danger of melanoma comes from its metastasis from the skin to the vital organs. Being able to slow down or stop metastasis could turn a disease that was often a death sentence into a manageable chronic illness with relatively little risk of death, the research team said.
Lynette Summerill is an award-winning writer and watersports junkie who lives in San Diego with her husband and two beach loving dogs. In addition to writing about cancer-related issues for EmpowHER, her work has been seen in publications internationally.
Sources:
Ultraviolet-radiation-induced inflammation promotes angiotropism and metastasis in melanoma. Thomas Tüting
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24572365
Skin Cancer. American Academy of Dermatology.
http://www.aad.org/media-resources/stats-and-facts/conditions/skin-cancer
UV Light Accelerates Cancer Cells That Creep Along the Outside of Blood Vessels. UCLA Press Release. Shaun Mason. 6 March 2014.
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/uv-light-accelerates-cancer-cells-2...
Angiotropism of Human Melanoma: Studies involving In Transit and Other Cutaneous Metastases and the Chicken Chorioallantoic Membrane. Claire Lugassy,MD, Stephen E. Vernon, MD,Clause Basam,MD Jean A. Enbring, Ph.D, Danny R. Welch, PH.d, Evangelos G. Poulos, MD, Hynda K. kleinman, PhD. And Raymond L. Barhnill, MD. Am J Dermatopathol. Abstract at:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1524855
Reviewed March 25, 2014
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith
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