In moles, these cells grow briefly before stopping, forming a benign spot. In melanoma, however, the cells continue to divide uncontrollably. A high mole count is a major risk factor for melanoma, with about one-third of melanomas developing from existing moles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Associate Professor Matthew Law, who leads the Genetics and Skin Cancer Lab at QIMR Berghofer, said that while public health campaigns and treatments have improved outcomes, melanoma remains a major health challenge in Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia still has the highest incidence of melanoma in the world, and around 1,400 people die from the disease each year,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cImmunotherapies have improved survival, but they do not work for about half of patients with advanced melanoma, so new treatment approaches are needed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
One gene identified in the study, SIKE1, plays a role in regulating immune responses to viral infections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Researchers believe that if this gene malfunctions, it may impair the immune system\u2019s ability to detect and destroy abnormal melanocytes, potentially allowing melanoma to develop. This makes it a possible target for future therapies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The study also enabled the development of a polygenic risk score to predict individuals more likely to have a high mole count.<\/p>\n
This tool could be incorporated into melanoma screening programs to improve early detection for those at higher genetic risk.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lead author, Shanika Jayasinghe, said the findings build on decades of skin cancer research and help explain why some individuals are more susceptible to developing moles and melanoma. <\/p>\n
Researchers say their next steps will include analysing larger datasets to identify additional genetic factors and investigating whether existing drugs could target the newly identified pathways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In moles, these cells grow briefly before stopping, forming a benign spot. In melanoma, however, the cells continue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,137],"class_list":["post-936594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}