In the News

Melanoma “epidemic” may simply represent diagnostic drift Will Boggs, MD Reuters Health http://cancer.med.upenn.edu/resources/article.cfm?c=3&s=8&ss=23&Year=2009&Month=09&id=16452   (Reuters Health) NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – The widely reported melanoma epidemic may simply represent a drift in the diagnostic criteria for the malignancy, according to a report in the September British Journal of Dermatology.… continue reading

N.J. Levell, C.C. Beattie*, S. Shuster and D.C. Greenberg* Dermatology Department, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, Norwich Eastern Cancer Registration and Information Centre (ECRIC), Cambridge CB22 3AD, U.K. Correspondence to Nick J. Levell. E-mail: nick.levell@nnuh.nhs.uk Conflicts of interest None declared. KEYWORDS aetiology • incidence • melanoma • stage • ultraviolet ABSTRACT Background The reported incidence of melanoma has greatly increased and this has been attributed to ultraviolet exposure.… continue reading

Health Unit’s view on tanning beds is misleading Friday August 14 2009 Recently the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified tanning beds as a Group 1 carcinogenic. Also in this Group 1 classification were arsenic, salted fish, birth control pills, plutonium, red wine and mustard gas.… continue reading

By CBC News CBC News The Medical Society of P.E.I. wants the provincial health minister to ban the use of artificial tanning equipment for people under the age of 18. Members passed a unanimous motion to that effect on Saturday during the society’s annual general meeting in Stanhope, P.E.I.… continue reading

A nontoxic, radioactive skin patch safely and successfully treated basal cell carcinoma, one of the most common types of skin cancer. “While basal cell carcinoma is rarely fatal, it can be a painful and disfiguring disease,” explained Priyanka Gupta, a nuclear medicine technologist at All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi and lead author of the study demonstrating this finding.… continue reading