Melanoma Art

Illustrated by: Gabe de la Cruz

“Title” interprets a type of skin cancer known as melanoma [1]. With a higher mortality rate than any other form of skin cancer, nearly 8,000 melanoma-related deaths are estimated to occur in the United States in 2023 [2, 3]. Current research points to a mixed treatment approach involving targeted immunotherapy, which uses a combination of antibodies specific to proteins involved in melanoma growth and immune cells attracted to those antibodies, to stop melanoma proliferation [4]. Due to advances in treatment methods, mortality rates have fallen (by 17.9%, 2013-2016) in the United States within the last decade [1].

References

[1] Saginala, K., Barsouk, A., Aluru, J. S., Rawla, P., & Barsouk, A. (2021). Epidemiology of melanoma. Medical sciences, 9(4), 63. https://doi.org/10.3390/medsci9040063

[2] Davis, L. E., Shalin, S. C., & Tackett, A. J. (2019). Current state of melanoma diagnosis and treatment. Cancer biology & therapy, 20(11), 1366-1379. https://doi.org/10.1080/15384047.2019.1640032

[3] American Cancer Society. (27, October 2023). Key Statistics for Melanoma Skin Cancer. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/melanoma-skin-cancer/about/key-statistics.html

[4] Domingues, B., Lopes, J. M., Soares, P., & Pópulo, H. (2018). Melanoma treatment in review. ImmunoTargets and therapy, 35-49. https://doi.org/10.2147/ITT.S134842