Some good news this morning. A new personalised neoantigen vaccine against melanoma is starting its final phase 3 trial at University College Hospital, London. The mRNA vaccine is custom-built for each patient and tells their body to hunt down cancer cells to prevent the disease ever coming back. #Cancer#Melanoma#UCLH#Medicine#Vaccines
@DocCarms
1/2
Not mocking. Though tangential. And probably pretty Australo-Centric.
We've a huge problem here in #Australia with #Melanoma#SkinCancer. (I met the Australia silver medal record holder, a childhood and early adulthood on a beach south of Sydney, prob combined with fair skin, has earned him +15 melanomas.)
Those graphics would make a super "Slip, Slop, Slap" cover-up-when-in-the-summer-sun advert.
Harmless cancers are being overdiagnosed & overtreated in America. "In our exuberance to find these cancers, we have basically turned a lot of healthy people who are not destined to die from cancers into patients,” says Dr. Ade Adamson, a cancer screening expert. Check out my new piece👇 https://tinyurl.com/4bzfnhd3
I was REALLY disappointed to see the GoFundMe for a non-federating CalcKey instance for Black Fediverse users (supported by some of the most important Fediverse founders besides the LGBTQ+ ones) was shut down. It is nearly impossible for Black folx to use the Mastodon Network. It NEEDS to be easier. To this end I have started a new #Pleroma fork named #Melanoma.
Features:
runs on lower hardware specs like feature phones
easy installation via Verizon App Store
named after the most powerful chemical compound in the universe, melanin
May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month, and as a person who has a lot of experience with moles, it's PSA time.
Skin cancers are sadly common, striking 20% of Americans by the age of 70. However, when you catch them early the cure rate (not remission, cure) is amazingly high. And the best way to catch them is to know your skin. (Thread)
My wife has had a mole on her lower back, left side, for a long time (for at least the 44 years I've been able to see her naked back 😉). No big deal. Bigger than my thumb nail, but it never changed.
Until it did.
While giving her a back rub a couple of weeks ago I noticed a slight "smudge" at the bottom of the mole. Just a shadow. After years of asking her to get it checked, I insisted.
'Our' GP said "Doesn't look bad, but we can cut it out..." After some more discussion, my wife agreed.
By the way, did you know brunettes can carry the "Redhead Gene"? She does. Ouch. Double the dose of local anaesthetic to deaden the area. The adrenaline in the local had her buzzing for a while...
Yep. It was a melanoma. The pathologist said the GP got it all (she's very good with a scalpel) but now we wait for a skin specialist appointment.