Gray-Schopfer Vanessa, Wellbrock Claudia, Marais Richard
The Institute of Cancer Research, Signal Transduction Team, Cancer Research UK Centre of Cell and Molecular Biology, 237 Fulham Road, London SW3 6JB, UK.
Nature. 2007 Feb 22;445(7130):851-7. doi: 10.1038/nature05661.
Melanoma is a cancer that arises from melanocytes, specialized pigmented cells that are found predominantly in the skin. The incidence of melanoma is rising steadily in western populations--the number of cases worldwide has doubled in the past 20 years. In its early stages malignant melanoma can be cured by surgical resection, but once it has progressed to the metastatic stage it is extremely difficult to treat and does not respond to current therapies. Recent discoveries in cell signalling have provided greater understanding of the biology that underlies melanoma, and these advances are being exploited to provide targeted drugs and new therapeutic approaches.
黑色素瘤是一种起源于黑素细胞的癌症，黑素细胞是主要存在于皮肤中的特殊色素细胞。在西方人群中，黑色素瘤的发病率正在稳步上升——全球病例数在过去20年中翻了一番。在早期阶段，恶性黑色素瘤可以通过手术切除治愈，但一旦发展到转移阶段，就极难治疗，且对目前的治疗方法没有反应。细胞信号传导方面的最新发现使人们对黑色素瘤背后的生物学有了更深入的了解，这些进展正被用于开发靶向药物和新的治疗方法。
