Melanoma: Improving the odds

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Several new biotech therapies in development could bring hope to the thousands of people who suffer and die from melanoma every year. Although much less common than basal cell and squamous cell skin cancers, advanced melanoma is the deadliest skin cancer because of its propensity to metastasize. There are no established standards of care, and cancer rates are growing fast in the developed world. The American Cancer St (www.cancer.org) estimates that nearly 54,000 melanoma cases were diagnosed in 2002, with more than 7,000 deaths. Every year in the UK, around 5,500 people are diagnosed with malignant melanoma, and more than 1,600 people die from it. But those numbers may be …