Publications by authors named "Michaela Plaka"
It is estimated that about 1-13% of melanoma patients will develop multiple primary melanomas. Although the occurrence of subsequent tumors has been described during the last few years, the development of simultaneous melanomas has not yet been extensively studied. We reviewed our registries to identify patients with multiple primary melanomas.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCutaneous melanoma metastases: Clinical and dermoscopic findings.
J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol
May 2023
Article Synopsis
- The study focused on the clinical and dermoscopic characteristics of cutaneous melanoma metastases (CMM) in 42 melanoma patients, noting that accurate diagnosis remains difficult due to variability in these features.
- Results showed that both male and female patients exhibited different dermoscopic patterns of CMM, with the homogenous and amelanotic types being the most prevalent, and specific patterns associated with the depth of the primary melanoma.
- The findings suggest that deeper melanomas are more likely to show vascular structures in their metastases, and in some cases, CMM may be the first sign of underlying melanoma.
A female patient with xeroderma pigmentosum and multiple basal cell carcinomas was treated with a hedgehog pathway inhibitor (vismodegib), which successfully treated the majority of her basal cell carcinomas while preventing the appearance of new lesions. The sum diameter of lesions showed a 61% decrease after 16.5 months of treatment, although after 18.
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- About 5-10% of melanoma cases are hereditary, with CDKN2A and CDK4 being key genes linked to familial melanoma.
- This study focused on analyzing these gene variants in Greek families with a history of melanoma, involving 52 families in total.
- Findings showed that 46.2% of families had CDKN2A variants, which correlated with a younger age at melanoma diagnosis, but no significant links were found between CDKN2A mutations and MC1R gene variations.
Article Synopsis
- * A study involving 18 patients found the average age was about 78, with most patients staying on treatment for around 8.73 months.
- * 72.2% experienced adverse events, leading to 11 patients discontinuing treatment, primarily due to fatigue and personal choice after seeing treatment success; discontinuation was influenced by age, previous treatments, and severity of side effects.
The need for effective treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic basal cell carcinoma (BCC), in conjunction with major advances in the elucidation of the molecular basis of this tumor has led to the advent of new targeted therapies - namely, hedgehog inhibitors. The rationale for their use in patients with advanced BCC is based on their inhibitory effect on the hedgehog pathway, which is aberrantly activated in BCCs due to mutations of its primary components, PTCH1 and SMO genes. Vismodegib (GDC-0449) is an orally bioavailable hedgehog pathway inhibitor that selectively inhibits SMO.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Genetic association studies have revealed numerous polymorphisms conferring susceptibility to melanoma. We aimed to replicate previously discovered melanoma-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in a Greek case-control population, and examine their predictive value.
Methods: Based on a field synopsis of genetic variants of melanoma (MelGene), we genotyped 284 patients and 284 controls at 34 melanoma-associated SNPs of which 19 derived from GWAS.
Objectives: Limited data exist about the risk factors of melanoma in the Greek population. We investigated the association of melanoma with phenotypic and solar indices in this darker skin population residing in an environment of high ambient ultraviolet radiation.
Methods: Our study included 200 sporadic melanoma cases and 200 age-, sex-matched control subjects.
Individuals with melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene variants have been shown to carry an increased risk for the development of melanoma. In this study, we investigated the relationship of MC1R gene variants and the risk of melanoma in 123 melanoma patients and 155 control subjects from Greece. The entire MC1R gene was sequenced for polymorphisms and the results were correlated with host factors and pigmentary characteristics.
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