Childhood cancer - Melanoma

~ Written by Sreejana Basu

Cancer is primarily due to the unusual and abnormal, unstoppable division of cells in the body. The alarming disease once diagnosed can be difficult to treat as melanoma is an extremely malignant type of skin cancer that begins in melanocytes (cells that produce melanin, a pigment that provides our skin with its colour). The visual presence of the tumour ( a cluster of abnormal cells that forms a lump ) is as a mole and this is proven to be extremely difficult to diagnose without a biopsy.

Pediatric melanoma is one of the most common types of cancers occurring in children and is seen to vary with the difference in skin type, color, race, etc with a rate of 10.4 per million in 15- to 19-year-olds. Pediatric melanoma impersonates a normal tumor however presents itself differently from adult melanoma, with amelanotic, bleeding, color uniformity, varying sizes of diameter, which depends on the evolution of mole or lump. The majority of pediatric melanoma are sporadic and are linked to ultraviolet (UV), DNA damage, and modification. This causes at least 22% of patients with pediatric melanoma to have non-modifiable risk factors, such as fair skin, xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), genetic susceptibility, etc.

These melanomas can be subclassified into the following three main categories:

• conventional melanoma (CM)
• melanoma arising in CNM
• Spitzoid melanoma

and are seen to have varying pathological factors that affect its treatment, histologies, etc. The main and different stages of diagnosis are classified as :

1. Stage 0
2. Stage IA
3. Stage IB
4. Stage III
5. Stage IV

and the ways of treatment revolve around the following:

• Surgical methods to remove the malignant tissue
• chemotherapy (also known as drug therapy)
• radiation treatment (high energy X-rays acting as radiation that kills the malignancy)
• Targeted therapy or immunotherapy (proteins that cause the immune system to destroy cancer cells or specific genes
• hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (transplant via new marrow blood cells)

Survival for pediatric melanoma has increased rapidly due to technological advancements and increased rates of faster diagnosis, with a success rate being 87–95%. It is said that with reduced exposure to harmful UV radiation skin cancer can be avoided and precaution can be taken for the same.

References:

• https://www.cancer.gov/types/childhood-cancers/child-adolescent-cancers-fact-sheet#:~:text=Among%20children%20(ages%200%20to,and%20kidney%20tumors%20(1).
• https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/cancer/Pages/Cancer-Therapies.aspx
• http://www.danafarberbostonchildrens.org/conditions/solid-tumors/pediatric_melanoma.aspx#:~:text=While%20melanomas%20in%20adults%20tend,typically%20yellowish%2C%20whitish%2C%20or%20pink
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5774597/