PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Transplant recipients more likely to develop aggressive melanoma

Immunosuppression could be to blame for proliferation of the deadliest form of skin cancer, researchers say

2015-08-13
(Press-News.org) Organ transplant recipients are twice as likely to develop melanoma as people who do not undergo a transplant, and three times more likely to die of the dangerous skin cancer, suggests new research led by a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health student.

The findings, reported Aug. 13 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, suggest that the immunosuppressive medications that transplant recipients receive to keep them from rejecting their new organs -- especially the high doses administered at the time of transplant -- may make them more susceptible to later stage cancers that are harder to cure. The researchers found that transplant recipients were four times more likely to be diagnosed with regional stage melanoma, which has already begun to spread to other parts of the body.

"We knew that melanoma was more likely in transplant recipients, but we thought it might be a function of intensive screening since they are very likely to develop less deadly forms of skin cancer and are checked regularly by dermatologists," says Hilary A. Robbins, MSPH, a PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School who conducted much of the research while working at the National Cancer Institute. "To the contrary, we were surprised to see that transplant recipients were particularly at risk for developing melanomas that weren't found until they had already spread."

The researchers were also surprised to see that the risk of aggressive melanomas was especially increased within the first four years after transplant. Previously, they thought that immunosuppressant medications might act cumulatively and that these cancers would be more likely after many years of taking the drugs. Transplant patients must take immunosuppressant medications for the rest of their lives to prevent organ rejection.

In 2011, there were more than 65,000 cases of melanoma in the United States, making it the deadliest form of skin cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Melanoma can spread to other parts of the body and causes over 9,000 deaths every year. It is most commonly linked to exposure to the ultraviolet rays given off by the sun.

Some types of cancer are more common among immune-suppressed people, such as those infected with HIV and transplant recipients. But Robbins says these are typically cancers that are linked to viruses like cervical cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma and lymphoma. Melanoma is not linked to a virus.

For their research, Robbins and the team studied 139,991 non-Hispanic white transplant recipients in the Transplant Cancer Match Study, which is led by Eric A. Engels, MD, MPH, a senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute. The study links the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, which captures data on all transplants in the United States, with 15 population-based cancer registries, and includes information on almost half of the country's transplant population between 1987 and 2010. The researchers found 519 melanomas in this group and analyzed risk factors for developing melanoma.

Using a different data set, the researchers compared outcomes among 182 melanoma patients in the transplant group with more than 130,000 other people with melanoma. Over 15 years, 27 percent of the transplant recipients died of their melanoma, as compared to 12 percent of the non-recipients. The researchers found that melanoma patients who had received a transplant were three times more likely to die from their melanoma, even for melanomas that were diagnosed at an early stage or were very small.

The researchers found that the late-stage cases of melanoma were associated with use of medication given at the time of transplant that essentially stops T-cells -- the main cells of immune response -- from functioning in order to keep them from attacking the new organ. Meanwhile, early-stage melanomas were more likely to be found in recipients who were administered a medication called azathioprine, a maintenance drug given long term to some transplant recipients. This drug is known to multiply the effects of ultraviolet radiation, which could lead to the development of melanoma.

Robbins says her group's findings suggest that transplant candidates should be screened very carefully for skin cancers before receiving their transplant. She says it is possible that some of the melanomas could have been present at the time of transplant, but that immunosuppressive drugs allowed them to spread unchecked. She also says that closer monitoring after transplant could allow melanoma to be detected earlier, preventing patients from developing deadly metastatic cancer.

Many researchers are working to develop transplant protocols that reduce or even eliminate the need for lifelong immunosuppressive medications, as these make organ recipients more likely to develop other medical problems.

INFORMATION:

"Melanoma risk and survival among organ transplant recipients" was written by Hilary A. Robbins; Christina A. Clarke; Sarah T. Arron; Zaria Tatalovich; Amy R. Kahn; Brenda Y. Hernandez; Lisa Paddock; Elizabeth L. Yanik; Charles F. Lynch; Bertram L. Kasiske; Jon Snyder and Eric A. Engels. The researchers are affiliated with the National Cancer Institute; the Stanford University School of Medicine and Stanford Cancer Institute; the University of California, San Francisco; the New York State Cancer Registry; the University of Hawaii Cancer Center; the New Jersey State Cancer Registry; the University of Iowa; the University of Minnesota; and the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.

The research was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Cancer Institute. Robbins is currently supported by the Cancer Epidemiology, Prevention, and Control Training Grant (NCI T32 CA009314).



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Setting prices centrally, w/optimization yields higher profits than local pricing: INFORMS

2015-08-13
A study on granting local sales people pricing discretion shows that profits improve by up to 11% when local sales forces are empowered to negotiate with customers. However a centralized system that uses optimization techniques and limits local sales discretion improves profits still further, by an additional 20%. The research appears in the current issue of Management Science, a publication of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), the leading professional association in analytics and operations research. "This hybrid approach balances ...

Surgeons refine procedure for life-threatening congenital heart defect

2015-08-13
Summary: Children born with the major congenital heart defect hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) often must undergo a series of corrective surgeries beginning at birth. While most have the standard three-stage Norwood procedure, a hybrid strategy has been introduced to offset some disadvantages associated with the Norwood surgeries. In a report in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, investigators compare whether outcomes can be improved if an arterial shunt is used as a source of pulmonary blood flow rather than the more conventional venous shunt as ...

Heavy smokers and smokers who are obese gain more weight after quitting

2015-08-13
For smokers, the number of cigarettes smoked per day and current body mass index are predictive of changes in weight after quitting smoking, according to researchers at Penn State College of Medicine. Quitting smoking may lead to some weight gain but how much weight gain depends on the individual. Previous research shows that for some it can be just a few pounds, but for others it can be more than 25 pounds. Unfortunately, factors that can help predict the amount of weight a smoker may gain are not well understood. "Many smokers are concerned about gaining weight after ...

Mayo Clinic-led study validates tool for pt. reporting side effects in cancer clinical trials

2015-08-13
PHOENIX -- A multicenter study involving Mayo Clinic researchers has found that the National Cancer Institute's Patient Reported Outcomes version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (PRO-CTCAE), was accurate, reliable and responsive, compared to other, established patient-reported and clinical measures. The study is published today in the journal JAMA Oncology. "In most cancer clinical trials, information on side effects is collected by providers who have limited time with their patients and current patient questionnaires are limited in scope and depth," ...

Humans responsible for demise of gigantic ancient mammals

2015-08-13
Early humans were the dominant cause of the extinction of a variety of species of giant beasts, new research has revealed. Scientists at the universities of Exeter and Cambridge claim their research settles a prolonged debate over whether mankind or climate change was the dominant cause of the demise of massive creatures in the time of the sabretooth tiger, the woolly mammoth, the woolly rhino and the giant armadillo. Known collectively as megafauna, most of the largest mammals ever to roam the earth were wiped out over the last 80,000 years, and were all extinct by ...

Sequestered prion protein takes the good mood away, suggests new hypothesis on depression

2015-08-13
The discovery of antidepressant drugs in the 1950s led to the first biochemical hypothesis of depression, known as the monoamine hypothesis. This hypothesis proposes that an imbalance of certain brain chemicals is the key cause of depression. Research has investigated whether and to what degree the "reward and pleasure" chemical dopamine and, more recently, the "happiness" chemical serotonin, could be the neurotransmitters involved in the malady. However, the monoamine hypothesis does not seem to fully explain the complexity of human depression. Now a new study offers one ...

Dentists tapped for new role: Drug screenings

2015-08-13
August 13, 2015--A visit to the dentist has the potential to be more than a checkup of our teeth as patients are increasingly screened for medical conditions like heart disease and diabetes. A new study by researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health focuses on dental screenings for drug misuse, finding 77 percent of dentists ask patients about illicit drug use, and 54 percent of dentists believe that such screenings should be their responsibility. Results of the study are online in the journal Addiction. "There are a sizeable number of people ...

Birth factors may predict schizophrenia in genetic subtype of schizophrenia

2015-08-13
TORONTO, (Aug. 13, 2015) - Low birth weight and preterm birth appear to increase the risk of schizophrenia among individuals with a genetic condition called the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, a new study from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) shows. The research, published in Genetics in Medicine, is "...part of ongoing efforts among schizophrenia researchers to predict and prevent illness at the earliest stages possible," says senior author Dr. Anne Bassett, Clinician-Scientist in CAMH's Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute and Canada Research ...

Biochemist studies oilseed plants for biofuel, industrial development

2015-08-13
MANHATTAN, Kansas -- A Kansas State University biochemistry professor has reached a milestone in building a better biofuel: producing high levels of lipids with modified properties in oil seeds. Timothy Durrett, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, and collaborators at Michigan State University and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln have modified Camelina sativa -- a nonfood oilseed crop -- and produced the highest levels of modified seed lipids to date. By modifying the oilseed biochemistry in camelina, the researchers have achieved very high ...

High participation in small church groups has its downside, research shows

2015-08-13
CLEMSON, S.C. -- Parishioners who participate in small groups within a religious congregation are generally more likely to be civically engaged than their fellow worshipers unless a church has high overall small-group participation, according to research recently released by Clemson and Louisiana State universities. The study, "Small groups, contexts, and civic engagement: A multilevel analysis of United States Congregational Life Survey data," published in the July issue of the journal Social Science Research, reveals that the positive effect small-group participation ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Doctors received approximately $12.1 billion from drug and device makers between 2013-2022

Discovery suggests new strategy against follicular lymphoma

Making the future too bright: how wishful thinking can point us in the wrong direction

Ochsner Health named to Newsweek’s America’s Greatest Workplaces 2024 for Job Starters

Three-year study of young stars with NASA’s Hubble enters new chapter

North Carolina takes the lead in PFAs research with Collaboratory’s $3 million investment to expand the state’s research capacity

Is it the school, or the students?

Exploring the relationship between HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and the incidence of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis – findings from Denmark

Music: Song lyrics have become simpler and more repetitive since 1980

Environment: More than half of Colorado River’s water used to irrigate crops

When inequality is more than “skin-deep”: Social status leaves traces in the epigenome of spotted hyenas in Tanzania

Study explores the future of at-home cancer treatment

First performance standards published to measure the effectiveness of lifestyle medicine treatments

To keep volunteers, connect them

Suppressing boredom at work hurts future productivity, study shows

Older brain cells linger unexpectedly before their death

Clear shift in arterial diseases in diabetes

Celebrating half a century of pioneering excellence: EBMT marks its 50th anniversary

Ancient DNA reveals the appearance of a 6th century Chinese emperor

DNA study IDs descendants of George Washington from unmarked remains, findings to aid service member IDs going back to World War II

Familial Alzheimer’s disease transferred via bone marrow transplant in mice

Perspectives of oncologists on the ethical implications of using AI for cancer care

Industry payments to US physicians by specialty and product type

Andrew E. Place, MD, PhD appointed as Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center Vice President, Pediatric Chief Medical Officer

COVID-19 antibody discovery could explain long COVID

Wild plants face viral surprise

Storing electrons from hydrogen for clean chemical reactions

Unlocking how to use mRNA to target Alzheimer’s disease

Kessler Foundation secures $770,000 in grants to advance leading-edge spinal cord research

Going ‘back to the future’ to forecast the fate of a dead Florida coral reef

[Press-News.org] Transplant recipients more likely to develop aggressive melanoma
Immunosuppression could be to blame for proliferation of the deadliest form of skin cancer, researchers say