Melanoma, a cancer of skin pigment cells called melanocytes, will strike an estimated 87,110 people in the U.S. in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Melanoma, a cancer of skin pigment cells called melanocytes, will strike an estimated 87,110 people in the U.S. in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A fraction of those melanomas come from pre-existing moles, but the majority of them come from sources unknown – until now.
Cornell researchers have discovered that when melanocyte stem cells accumulate a sufficient number of genetic mutations, they can become the cells where these cancers originate.
Under normal conditions, ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun activates melanocytes to release melanin, a pigment that protects the skin from the sun’s rays. But if melanocyte stem cells have surpassed a threshold of genetic mutations, a tumor can start to grow when those skin stem cells are activated by sun exposure.
Read more at Cornell University
Image: Fluorescence microscopy reveals melanoma (red, left; black, right) emerging from melanocyte stem cells. (Credit: Hyeongsun Moon and Andrew White, Cornell University)
