Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Apr 17;24(8):1516.
doi: 10.3390/molecules24081516.

Advances in the Understanding of Skin Cancer: Ultraviolet Radiation, Mutations, and Antisense Oligonucleotides as Anticancer Drugs

Kateryna V Laikova  1   2 , Volodymyr V Oberemok  3   4 , Alisa M Krasnodubets  5 , Nikita V Gal'chinsky  6 , Refat Z Useinov  7 , Ilya A Novikov  8 , Zenure Z Temirova  9 , Mikhail V Gorlov  10 , Nikita A Shved  11   12 , Vadim V Kumeiko  13   14 , Tatiana P Makalish  15 , Evgeniya Y Bessalova  16 , Iryna I Fomochkina  17 , Andrey S Esin  18 , Mikhail E Volkov  19 , Anatoly V Kubyshkin  20
Affiliations
Review

Advances in the Understanding of Skin Cancer: Ultraviolet Radiation, Mutations, and Antisense Oligonucleotides as Anticancer Drugs

Kateryna V Laikova et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Skin cancer has always been and remains the leader among all tumors in terms of occurrence. One of the main factors responsible for skin cancer, natural and artificial UV radiation, causes the mutations that transform healthy cells into cancer cells. These mutations inactivate apoptosis, an event required to avoid the malignant transformation of healthy cells. Among these deadliest of cancers, melanoma and its 'younger sister', Merkel cell carcinoma, are the most lethal. The heavy toll of skin cancers stems from their rapid progression and the fact that they metastasize easily. Added to this is the difficulty in determining reliable margins when excising tumors and the lack of effective chemotherapy. Possibly the biggest problem posed by skin cancer is reliably detecting the extent to which cancer cells have spread throughout the body. The initial tumor is visible and can be removed, whereas metastases are invisible to the naked eye and much harder to eliminate. In our opinion, antisense oligonucleotides, which can be used in the form of targeted ointments, provide real hope as a treatment that will eliminate cancer cells near the tumor focus both before and after surgery.

Keywords: Merkel cell carcinoma; antisense oligonucleotides; basal cell carcinoma; dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans; melanoma; mutations; skin; squamous cell carcinoma; ultraviolet radiation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Incidence of different types of skin cancer.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The origins of various types of skin cancer. 1—Merkel cell (Merkel cell carcinoma); 2—melanocytes (melanoma); 3—basal cells (basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma); 4—keratinocytes (basal cell carcinoma); 5—fibroblasts (dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans).
Figure 3
Figure 3
The effect of UV radiation on skin cells.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The relative size of peripheral margins in the removal of various types of skin cancer.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Mutations resulting in melanoma (a) and Merkel cell carcinoma (b).
Figure 6
Figure 6
The effect of antisense oligonucleotides on skin cancer cells. ASO: antisense oligonucleotide.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Methods of applying a cream or ointment based on antisense oligonucleotides in the treatment of melanoma.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Tsao H. Genetics of non-melanoma skin cancer. Arch. Dermatol. 2001;137:1486–1492. doi: 10.1001/archderm.137.11.1486. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Diepgen T.L., Mahler V. The epidemiology of skin cancer. Br. J. Dermatol. 2002;146:1–6. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2133.146.s61.2.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Leiter U., Garbe C. Epidemiology of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer—The role of sunlight. Adv. Exp. Med. Biol. 2008;624:89–103. - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization Skin Cancers /online/ [(accessed on 3 February 2019)]; Available online: http://www.who.int/uv/faq/skincancer/en/print.html.
    1. Apalla Z., Lallas A., Sotiriou E., Lazaridou E., Ioannides D. Epidemiological trends in skin cancer. Dermatol. Pract. Concept. 2017;7:1–6. doi: 10.5826/dpc.0702a01. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

Substances