Breast cancer may boost women's risk of melanoma: most melanoma diagnoses were in the first year after breast cancer diagnosis.

Publication: Skin & Allergy News

Publication Date: 01-JUL-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 International Medical News Group

NEW ORLEANS -- Women diagnosed with breast cancer appear to have an increased risk of malignant melanoma, particularly during the first year following diagnosis of the breast tumor, reported Dr. Rony Weitzen at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology

Dr. Weitzen and colleagues at the Institute of Oncology, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel, analyzed incidence data from Israeli tumor registries, and found a nearly twofold overall increase in primary malignant melanomas in women with breast cancer. There was no overall increase in breast cancer incidence among women diagnosed with primary melanomas.

"A woman with breast cancer should be considered to be at high risk for melanoma, and should be monitored very closely," Dr. Weitzen told this newspaper. He presented the findings as a poster...

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