Skin cancer research

All treatments have to be fully researched before they can be adopted as standard treatment for everyone. This is so that

• We can be sure they work
• We can be sure they work better than the treatments that are available at the moment
• They are known to be safe

First, treatments are developed and tested in laboratories. For ethical (moral) and safety reasons, experimental treatments must be tested in the laboratory before they can be tried in people. If a treatment described on the CancerHelp Uk website is said to be at the laboratory stage of research, it is not ready for patients and is not available either within or outside the NHS. Until studies are completed and new effective treatments are found, these treatments cannot be used as standard therapy for non melanoma skin cancers.

Tests in patients are called clinical trials. The trials and research section has information about what trials are including information about the 4 phases of clinical trials. If you are interested in taking part in a clinical trial, visit our searchable database of clinical trials recruiting in the UK. As skin cancer can be relatively easy to treat and cure, there tend to be few clinical trials in skin cancer. If there is a trial you are interested in, print it off and take it to your own specialist. If the trial is suitable for you, your doctor will need to make the referral to the research team. The database also has information about closed trials and trial results.

Most skin cancers are preventable. If we can find a way to successfully educate people not to go out in the sun without protection we could prevent the majority of skin cancers.

Late in 2002, the UK Health Departments commissioned Cancer Research UK to run a national skin cancer prevention awareness campaign. The campaign called Sunsmart, was launched in March 2003. Sunsmart continues to provide a long term sun awareness campaign.

Look in the about skin cancer section of CancerHelp UK for lots of information about how to protect your skin from the sun. You can also get information on the Cancer Research UK's Sunsmart website including information about the campaigns that are going on to raise awareness.

Retinoids are chemicals similar to vitamin A. Some studies have shown that these drugs may help with treating non melanoma skin cancers. Tretinoin is a type of retinoid sometimes used to treat solar keratosis. It can be applied to the affected area in a cream. It works by encouraging the cancerous cells to mature into normal cells.

Acitretin is another retinoid that is given in tablet form to people who have repeated skin cancers. It may help prevent new skin cancers from forming. 

These drugs do have side effects. They can cause redness and skin peeling. This usually settles down within a couple of days. You should not

• Go out in the sun whilst you are having this treatment as your skin may be more sensitive to sunlight
• Have retinoid treatment if you are pregnant or trying to become pregnant because it can cause severe birth defects
• Give blood while you are having retinoid treatment as your blood could be given to a pregnant woman

Although there have been some promising results from using retinoids, more research is needed before we know the exact role of these drugs in treating skin cancers.

Scientists now know that the ultraviolet light from the sun damages your DNA. These changes in your DNA cause normal skin cells to become cancerous. Scientists are using this information to research and develop new treatments for skin cancers.

A study is looking into the genetic changes that cause skin cancer. The researchers are collecting samples of tissue and blood from people diagnosed with melanoma and non melanoma skin cancer of the head and neck. They will use these samples to identify changes in genes that may have caused the cancer, and to identify how the body's immune system responds to the cancer.

Biological therapies are treatments that use natural substances from the body, or that change the way cells signal to each other. Biological therapies stimulate the body to attack or control the growth of cancer cells. Research is looking into biological therapies for skin cancer. There are trials testing

• Imiquimod (Aldera)
• LDE225

Imiquimod (Aldera)

Imiquimod cream (Aldara) is a new treatment which has been approved to treat the most common type of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma (BCC). The cream stimulates the immune system to attack the cancer. Studies have shown it may be of great benefit to people with small, early stage BCC. It has not been approved for nodular BCC.

Cancer Research UK is funding the 5 year SINS trial to check how well imiquimod cream works for both superficial and nodular basal cell carcinoma (BCC). There is more information about imiquimod cream in this section of CancerHelp UK.

LDE225

The BOLT trial is looking at a biological therapy drug called LDE225 for basal cell skin cancer that has spread. BCC usually grows slowly, and rarely spreads. If BCC does spread the usual treatment is surgery or radiotherapy. But sometimes surgery or radiotherapy are not possible. Researchers want to find out if LDE225 is a helpful treatment in this situation. LDE225 is a new drug that blocks a specific protein and stops cancer cells from sending growth signals. Researchers hope that it will stop the BCC growing or shrink it.

Diclofenac is an anti inflammatory drug. It is used as a cream and has been used in the treatment of actinic keratosis. The results of two studies have shown some response to this treatment. These two studies used it for different lengths of time, one for 60 days another for 90 days. Doctors don't fully understand how it works, or how well it works and further research is needed.