Skip to navigation | Skip to content  White blood cell protein
aids melanoma  Woman wearing hat and applying sunscreen  Despite
the finding, researchers recommend avoiding large doses of UV
radiation to prevent melanomas forming (Source: Robert
Churchill/iStockphoto)  Unwitting helper Scientists have
pinpointed a molecular mechanism in mice that helps skin cancer
cells confound the animal's immune system, according to a study.
The discovery, if duplicated in humans, could one day lead to
drug treatments that block this mechanism, and thus the cancer's
growth, the study's authors report.  In experiments on mice,
researchers showed for the first time that a protein called
interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) plays a key role in the spread of
melanoma, a notoriously aggressive form of cancer resistant to
standard chemotherapy.  The same kind of ultraviolet radiation
that leads to sunburn caused white blood cells to infiltrate the
skin of the mice, says Glenn Merlino, a scientist at the US
National Cancer Institute and