Sun damage predisposes pediatric patients to melanoma

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

According to new research published in the Journal of Investigational Dermatology, researchers from the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital-Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project have found that melanoma in some adolescent and adult patients involve many of the same genetic mutations and would likely respond to the same treatment.

For the study, researchers included 23 patients ranging in age from 9 months of 19 years old with melanoma.  Researchers sequenced each person's genome and found that among the 15 patients with conventional melanoma, their tumors included various genetic mutations that were mostly consistent with ultraviolet light damage.

"We were surprised to see that so many of the pediatric melanomas had genetic changes linked to UV damage," said Richard K. Wilson, Ph.D., director of The Genome Institute at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

"This in-depth look at the genomics of pediatric melanoma is extraordinarily important for diagnosis and for selecting treatments that give young patients the best chances of a cure."