Even though things like sun exposure and tanning bed use are major risk factors for melanoma, even those who avoid these things as much as possible should be aware of the signs of melanoma. Mary Elizabeth Williams says she was absolutely not the type to lie out and soak up rays — still, she was diagnosed with stage four melanoma.
Melanoma starts in the same cells that give your skin, hair, and eyes their color. Only in melanoma do the cells change in a way that allows them to spread to other organs. While it’s mostly found on areas of your skin exposed to the sun, it can also develop in areas that rarely receive sun rays.
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“Even though I am from New Jersey, I was never one to tan,” Mary Elizabeth says. “I never went to the beach without sunscreen. I never spent a moment in a tanning salon in my life. I was pretty much your basic little goth girl. So I didn’t think too much about skin cancer.”Mary Elizabeth thought something might be wrong when she found a scab on her scalp while taking a shower — still, she didn’t think it’d be skin cancer. After a biopsy, she was told she had melanoma and that it was metastatic.
When she was considering treatment in 2011, the outlook for a metastatic melanoma diagnosis was only a few months. But Mary Elizabeth was advised to consider immunotherapy — or the harvesting of one’s own immune system to fight cancer. Immunotherapy was — and still is — a very experimental form of treatment. Some people have seen amazing outcomes, but many haven’t.
Mary Elizabeth was one of the fortunate melanoma survivors and an example of the immunotherapy revolution.
“I spent two years in a clinical trial. I’m now cancer-free,” she says.
WATCH: Applying Immunotherapy In Melanoma Treatment
“We have known for a while now that immunotherapy is a very important weapon in the fight against melanoma,” Dr. Janice Mehnert, associate director of clinical research at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, explains to SurvivorNet.
SurvivorNet spoke with Dr. James (Jim) Allison, a pioneer in immunotherapy research at MD Anderson Cancer Center, who was awarded a Nobel Prize for the development of the science known as checkpoint inhibitors.
“Immunotherapy is rather unique in that for the first time, we’re getting truly curative therapies in many kinds of disease– not just in melanoma but in lung cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Merkel cell cancer, head and neck cancer,” Dr. Allison tells SurvivorNet.
“I think that the most powerful combinations coming up are based on combining immune blockers or enhancers, but also drugs that can directly kill tumor cells to really have a double whammy,” Dr. Allison added.
WATCH: What Increases Your Risk for Melanoma?
SurvivorNet experts recommend avoiding unprotected sun exposure because ultraviolet (UV) radiation can lead to melanoma. Tanning beds pose ultraviolet radiation risks for skin cancer and should be avoided. Many dermatologists recommend using spray tans to reduce the risk of melanoma skin cancer.
The most important thing to look out for when it comes to finding melanoma is a new spot on your skin or a spot that is changing in size, shape, or color, SurvivorNet’s medical experts say.
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