Another medical professional weighs in about melanoma

[Contrary1]

"Being a Dermatology Physician Assistant and a cancer survivor, I recently reviewed John McCain's medical records (which were made public earlier this year after he was the Republican nominee) about his melanoma, the type of skin cancer that is very frequently fatal. He has had 4, possibly 5 melanomas. The most serious one was on his left temple, in 2000. It was considered a deep melanoma (2.2 mm-- which is very risky). There was also another melanoma in the same area, which could have likely been a metastasis from the bigger melanoma on the temple, there is no way to know. They had to take out all his lymph nodes on that side of his head and neck, that is why his cheek looks so misshapen. That thickness of melanoma (whether or not it is in the lymph nodes) usually gets about 1 year of interferon (a form of chemotherapy), which would have been standard of care. But, since this happened right at the time of the 2000 election conventions, McCain opted not to have the chemo.

He has had another melanoma appear on his nose in 2002, again, no real way to tell that this was not a metastasis, or a new melanoma. The other 2 melanomas were prior to 2000. Frankly, I'm surprised that he has survived this long. Melanoma is very unpredictable and aggressive. With his history of multiple melanoma episodes, as well as other types of skin cancers and pre-cancers, this means McCain's immune system is poor. Melanoma can metastasize to any part of the body including the brain. It lurks until it starts to cause problems in whatever organ it starts to grow in. The only way to know if it spread is when it invades something and causes that organ to malfunction. There are no blood tests or other screening tests to catch metastasis "early" other than frequent skin checks and that would only find it again on the skin. When melanoma spreads, there is not any good treatments to stop it.."

http://www.americablog.com/2008/09/another-medical-professional-weighs-in.html


Related article from May 24, 2008:

New questions about McCain's melanoma

"Sen. John McCain, 71, is in excellent health and shows no evidence of the recurrence of the melanoma skin cancer that led to extensive head and neck surgery in 2000, McCain's doctors said Friday.

<snip>

"At the present time, Sen. McCain enjoys excellent health and displays extraordinary energy," McCain's primary care physician, Dr. John Eckstein, told reporters in a conference call arranged by McCain's campaign. "While it is impossible to predict any person's future health, today I can find no medical reason or problems that would preclude Sen. McCain from fulfilling all the duties and obligations of president of the United States."

In addition, Eckstein said, "We continue to find no evidence of metastasis or recurrence of the invasive melanoma as we approach the eighth anniversary of that operation." He concluded that the prognosis for McCain was "very good" because "the time of greatest risk for recurrence of invasive melanoma is within the first few years after the surgery."

But buried in 1,173 pages of medical records that McCain's campaign released before the conference call was something not previously made public: Two pathologists at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology who examined the melanoma specimen from McCain's left temple in 2000 suggested there were two melanomas on his temple, not one, as his doctors had said publicly at the time..."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/24/MNU210SLMJ.DTL&type=health

[barbtries]

1. we have two candidates on the republican side

neither of which should be running. gobama.