What is Melanoma?

Melanoma skin cancer is a dangerous disease caused by ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

uv rays

UV rays from the sun eaily go through the skin's surface reaching a deep areas beneath such as the Dermis and Hypodermis.

Constant exposure to this radiation deep within your skin causes mutations in your melanocytes that may eventually lead to a cancerous tumor.

Symptoms includes: new, unusual growth or a change in an existing mole and can occur anywhere on the body.

 

Metastatic Melanoma (stage 4):

If the melanoma is not treated early enough, the cells will rapidly spread down to the bloodstream due to its quick duplicating nature.

Melanoma spread

Melanoma cells spreading to the lymph and blood vessles.

Metastatic melanoma, the most dangerous stage of melanoma, begins as the cancer cells seep into the bloodstream allowing it to spread to distant organs and lymph nodes, slowly deteriorating the body's ablity to function.

Anatomy of a Melanoma Cell.

Antigen: Found on the outside of all cells. Sends outside signals throughout the cell.

MAGE Antigen: Tumor specific antigen found only on the outside of melanoma cells. Result of mutations and gene rearangement cause by UV radiation. Sends outside signals throughout the cell.

Signal Transduction Protein: Relays antigen signals to mitochondria and DNA.

DNA: Caries genetic makeup. Causes cells to rapidly multiply. If damaged, it sends distress signals to the     mitochondria.

Mitochondria: Receives signals from the affected DNA and relays it to the PARP protein.

PARP Protein:  Base excision repairprotein that fixes broken DNA strands.