A five-year Australian study has confirmed that patients who receive timely radiation after the cancer has spread to the lymph system are less likely to suffer from relapse.

Depending on where a patient is treated, whether or not he or she receives radiation as part of their treatment plan or not depends on the protocol of the treatment center.  Some give their patients radiation right away, others take a "wait and see" approach, giving their patients radiation only if the cancer returns.  Still others give adjuvant radiation in conjunction with chemotherapy treatments.

For the study, 217 patients were followed for 5 years; all had at least one lymph node removed. half of the patients received radiation immediately, while the other half took a "wait and see" approach.  Of those who had the radiation, 19% had a recurrence of the cancer, while 31% of those who did not have radiation relapsed.
The procedure is out-patient and painless; a beam of radiation is pointed at the lesion and the surrounding tissue.

Although the news is encouraging, whether or not a patient had radiation sooner or later didn’t affect overall survival rates; further study will be needed to determine why not.

Although melanoma is the least common form of skin cancer, it has the potential to be the deadliest.  It begins in the cells that produce the pigment melanin, which are located in the top layer of the skin.

For most patients, the cancer presents as a dark colored mole with irregular or blurred borders.  However, some show up as pink nodules.

According to the American Cancer Society 67,000 people are diagnosed with melanoma annually; of those, 8,000 will die from the disease.

By Rachel Stockton