Early Skin Cancer Screening Minimizes Complications

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Melinda Sacks receives a skin cancer screening from Morgan Rabach, MD, Clinical Instructor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

When Melinda Sacks joined hundreds of other attendees at the 2014 Aspen Ideas Festival, in Aspen, Colorado, to receive a complimentary skin cancer screening by dermatologists at the Mount Sinai Health System, the clinician told her she had a suspicious spot on her face that should be checked by a specialist as soon as she returned home to Stanford, California.

Ms. Sacks says she was surprised by this because “I thought it was a birth mark.” But the small pigmented spot with a clearly defined edge was a lentigo maligna—an early form of melanoma, in which the malignant cells are confined to the tissue of origin. By catching the disease at an early stage, Ms. Sacks was able to have it removed without further complications. (more…)

Researchers Identify Key Protein in Melanoma Growth

A protein that promotes abnormal growth in melanoma cells has been identified for the first time by a team of researchers led by Emily Bernstein, PhD, Associate Professor of Oncological Sciences, and Dermatology, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

The novel discovery that the H2A.Z.2 protein is highly expressed in melanoma, appears to turn on the cell cycle, and makes melanoma cells grow faster, could also lead to therapeutic strategies that serve to inhibit cell proliferation. The results of Dr. Bernstein’s study were published in the July 2, 2015, issue of Molecular Cell. (more…)

Mount Sinai Health System Offers Free Skin Cancer Screenings

The Mount Sinai Health System invited staff, their friends and families, and the public, to learn about skin cancer prevention and receive a free, total-body skin examination during National Skin Cancer Awareness Month in May. The screenings took place in the dermatology departments of The Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai Roosevelt, and, for the first time, at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s. At The Mount Sinai Hospital, 97 people were examined; 81 at Mount Sinai Beth Israel; 77 at Mount Sinai Roosevelt; and 22 at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s.

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