A brief history of melanoma: from mummies to mutations.
Author(s): Rebecca VW, Sondak VK, Smalley KS.
Affiliation(s): Department of Molecular Oncology, The Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida
33612, USA.
Publication date & source: 2012, Melanoma Res. , 22(2):114-22
In recent years, melanoma research has undergone a renaissance. What was once
viewed, at least in the metastatic setting, as an intractable and untreatable
disease is now revealing its molecular weaknesses. 2011 was a landmark year for
melanoma therapy, with two new agents, the anti-CTLA4 antibody ipilimumab and the
BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib, shown to confer a survival benefit in randomized
phase III clinical trials. Overlooked in the recent flurry of interest that has
accompanied the development of these drugs, melanoma is in fact an ancient
disease that has long frustrated attempts at therapeutic interventions. In this
article, we trace the history of melanoma: from the earliest known cases of
melanoma in pre-Colombian South America, through the explorations of the
Victorian anatomists right up to the molecular biology revolution of the 20th
century that allowed for the identification of the key driving events required
for melanomagenesis. We further outline how observations about melanoma
heterogeneity, first made over 190 years ago, continue to drive our efforts to
reduce melanoma to the level of a chronic, manageable disease and ultimately to
cure it entirely.
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