Melanoma Skin Cancer: A Case Study

Type of cancer. Melanoma is a skin cancer that originates in the melanocytes, a type of cell that makes up the skin. Skin is formed by three layers: epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous tissue. Melanocytes, together with keratinocytes, are part of the epidermis and are responsible for producing melanin, a pigment that protects against the damaging effects of sunlight. The formation of melanin - melanogenesis is a biochemical process carried out by melanocytes and is affected by several hormones: α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH), β-MSH, β-LPH (β-lipotropic hormone) ACTH, BFGF (basic fibroblast growing factor), estrogen and testosterone (Anoma, 2011) Furthermore, melanocytes have in their cytoplasm numerous melanosomes and, under normal
There are different treatment options for melanoma: one is surgery where melanoma is removed as well as a portion of healthy tissues around it, to make sure to eliminate all cancer cells. This option neither treat the symptoms nor the genetic nature of the disease but it rather removes it. If the cancer was due to a hereditary disease, the cause is clearly not – and cannot be removed. Usually, after removal immunotherapy with interferon alpha is administered, to stimulate the immune system to fight against eventual cancer cells that may still be present in the body. Another treatment is radiotherapy which is generally used to treat melanoma that occurs after another treatment. At terminal stages, radiotherapy function is to relieve the symptoms. To help alleviate symptoms, chemotherapy may be used, but is generally not very effective in treating the disease. There are undergoing studies about vaccines and targeted therapies. The former exploit parts of melanoma cells to trigger the action of the immune system against the disease while the latter are drugs directed against specific mutations in the DNA of cancer cells (for example vemurafenib, a drug directed against the BRAF V600 mutation) (“Melanoma”,