Dr. Ranjan Perera (left) with post-doctoral researcher Dr. Joseph Mazar. (Picture by Beaker Sanford Burnham)
Researchers have identified something called a microRNA that may provide some clues to detecting and treating melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, according to the Los Angeles Times.
A team at the Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute in Orlando, Fla., has discovered that microRNA211 appears in healthy skin pigment cells but not in melanoma cells.
“It’s disappearing, so it has something to do with the cancer,” research team leader Dr. Ranjan Perera said in an Orlando Sentinel story. “If it is present in normal skin — and in benign tumors — we know it is not melanoma. If it’s not there, it could be due to melanoma.” The new findings, published in PLoS ONE, also suggest the discovery may lead to a new test for melanoma.
