Stereotactic Photon Beam Radiation Case Study

“Skin cancers are the most prevalent form of cancer in the Unites States An estimated 11,790 people die of skin cancer each year, 8700 from malignant melanoma” (Huether, McCance, 2012, p. 1058). Since melanoma is the most prevalent form of cancer, it is important to understand what causes it, what it does, who is at a higher risk, and possible treatment routes.

Treatment includes surgery to cut out the entire melanoma, chemotherapy which uses medicines to stop or slow growth, immunotherapy which uses medications to help your body’s immune system fight the cancer, and targeted therapy with inhibitors which prevent the cancer. Melanoma can spread to other parts of the body where it can cause tumors. When the melanoma has spread and it appears as a tumor in another part of the body, it sometimes can be successfully treated. It can come back after treatment. Stage four melanoma survival rate is 15-20%. All of the above treatments can also be used for recurrent melanoma. If the type of melanoma can-not be treated, the doctors will try to control your symptoms with medications. Risk factor of melanoma can include fair skin, history of sunburn, intense UV light exposure, having many moles or unusual moles, family history of melanoma, and a weakened immune system. The three types of melanoma include cutaneous , mucosal, an ocular. These moles rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye, in special cases they do. Ocular melanoma is found in the uvea, which includes the iris, ciliary, and choroid. 6 people per 1 million are diagnosed with this

Melanoma is caused by over exposure to UV which can sometimes cause sunburn, it can be especially critical to those whom are inclined to the disease itself. The tumours derive in the pigment-producing melanocytes which are inside the basal layer of the

Dermatologists, physicists, and scientists conducted a workshop of UVA treatment, and the workshop’s findings are presented in the New England Journal of Medicine. A previous president of the American Academy of Dermatology wrote an article titled “UVA1 is Often A1” to discuss their findings. The workshop found that medium or high-dose UVA1 works well with morphea, urticarial pigmentosa, atopic dermatitis, dyshydrotic dermatitis, subacute pruigo, and systemic lupus erythematosus. These diseases are treated by UVA rays because the wavelength is longer, which means there is less energy delivered to the skin and the greater penetration of photons (Dahl, 2012). Dermatologists even use sunbeds with higher intensity than regular tanning beds in their offices. For example, Windsor Dermatology uses four different types of light therapy to treat the skin condition psoriasis. One type of light therapy is that of UVA. The anti-inflammatory properties of ultraviolet light aid in slowing the growth of psoriasis effected skin

Melanoma is a malignant condition arising from melanocytes in the basal layer of the skin. Melanocytes are the cells that produce melanin, which gives skin its pigmentation and shields the deeper layers of skin from the damaging effects of ultraviolet radiation. When skin is exposed to ultraviolet radiation, melanocytes increase their production of melanin, which generates darker pigmentation of the skin. Ultraviolet radiation stimulates malignant changes within the melanocytes by mutating DNA, stimulating cutaneous growth factors, decreases immune defenses, and promotes species of melanin that cause DNA impairment and suppress apoptosis. The abnormalities caused by ultraviolet radiation in the melanocytes predispose it to

Mayo Clinic. (2011, April 21). Surgical oncology and melanoma - Mayo Clinic [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL4dIlfWUI4

Great presentation! Before your presentation I did not know the difference  between UVA and UVB.  Also, another eye opener was the risk for developing melanoma increasing to 75% with tanning bed use before age 35.  Tanning is just another issue that our younger generations are encouraged to participate in without fully understanding the risk.  Your diagram of the ABCDEs for detecting melanoma was a great reminder of what we should be looking for.  I once had a dermatologist give me some very useful advise.  He stated when you see a mole, imagine a line going vertically  down the middle of the mole.  When you look at the two halves, compare them.  He stated the two halves should look like a mirror image of each other.  If in doubt, we should

Melanoma is the most aggressive type of skin cancer. It accounts for a large proportion of skin-related deaths. Among all cancer types, melanoma has a particularly high propensity to metastasize to the brain, occurring in >50% of all patients with advanced disease. Current therapeutic options of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation have very limited efficacy for patients with melanoma brain metastasis. These patients either have multiple metastatic lesions or diagonistically challenging asymptomatic lesions, making surgery an inadequate therapeutic option by itself.

Treatments for melanoma depends on different factors depending of the thickness of the tumor and where it is in the body, how quickly the cancer cell are dividing, whether there was bleeding or ulceration of the tumor, how much cancer is in the lymph nodes, the number of places cancer has spread to in the body, whether the cancer has mutations in the gene called BRAF, or depending of the patient’s age and general

Melanoma is not exact. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun and tanning beds increases

lifetime to ultraviolet light can cause Squamous Cell Carcinoma. It can occur in different areas of

Several findings are made based on the results: UV radiation can cause cell death by inducing genetic mutation, which agree with Diepegen et al. (2012)’s finding regarding UV radiation’s destructive effect at a cellular level. Photoprotective agents can effectively prevent and reduce UV radiation induced damage to cells. Similar findings were made by Quatrano and Dinulos (2013), who indicated that sunscreen contains active ingredient that absorbs UV radiation ranging between 290-400 nm. This experiment proves that photoprotective agents with higher SPF values are more effective in absorbing UV radiation. Indicated by Green et al. (2011), they suggested that regular application of high SPF sunscreen will prevent melanoma.

The care of patients who have cutaneous melanoma (CM) has undergone a dramatic shift during the past 5 decades. Excision of pre-metastatic; CM has been the overriding goal. because once distant metastases have occurred. prognosis is dismal. Skin awareness and self-examination by patients. screening examinations of the skin, nails, and mucous membranes by physicians, and careful long-term Surveillance of patients determined in be al high risk for CM 'based on identifiable historic and phenotypic traits are having an immediate positive impact on CM. related mortality and CM-related case. fatality rate.

Immunotherapy uses the person’s own immune system to identify and destroy cancer cells. The checkpoint proteins on immune cells help prevent the immune system from attacking the normal, healthy cells in the body. Sometimes melanoma cells used the checkpoint proteins to avoid being detected and eliminated by the immune system. One type of immunotherapy is Cytokines. Cytokines are given to give the body a boost to the immune system and are generally given during early stages of melanoma. Some sides effects are fever, chills, and depression. Immunotherapy targets the checkpoint proteins to help restore immune response against melanoma cells. Radiation treatments utilizes high-energy (x-rays) to murder cancer cells. External beam radiation therapy, a type of radiation treatment, is used to treat melanoma by pointing radiation to the body from a source outside the body. Changes in skin color, hair loss, fatigue, and nausea are side effect of the procedure. If a loved one or I were to be diagnosed with melanoma, I would choose radiation therapy because it is a strong treatment to get rid of cancer cells. Immunotherapy is less harsh which may cause some cancer cells to not be killed and continue to spread even after the procedure. With radiation therapy, I know there is a better chance of getting rid of cancer cells better than

Squamous cell carcinoma is the second most common form of skin cancer. It occurs from exposure from the sunlight (ultraviolet radiation) along with smoking tobacco, chronic non-healing wounds, artificial UV radiation, certain genetic symptoms. Squamous cell carcinoma is usually treated with surgical excisions, electrodessication and Mohs surgery. There are nonsurgical options also which include radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immune response topical modifiers and photodynamic therapy. Squamous cell carcinoma is an uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells arising in the squamous cells which are found in the skin upper layers (epidermis). It is mainly caused by an increase in quantity of UV exposure in a lifetime and long-term exposure to chemicals