Here Comes the Science (or why chemo won't work for me)

When people talk about finding the cure for cancer, it's a bit of a misnomer. Cancer is not one illness; rather it is a collection of illnesses which are all different, with the common factor that they involve unwanted and damaging cell growth, starting with one cell that has gone 'wrong'. That one cell divides into two cells and then four and then eight and so on, resulting in a collection of cells called a tumour. Each cancer is different and people tend to think their common name simply describes the part of the body on which it occurs - lung cancer, skin cancer, brain cancer and so on. But what people don't realise is that each type of cancer has its own cells, all of which have their own unique structure and behaviour. The differences between them determine the type of treatment. 

Take chemotherapy. It works by impairing cell division so it has the biggest effect on cells which divide fast. These include testicular cancer cells, leukaemia cancer cells, cervical cancer cells and lymphoma cells (interestingly this is why chemo makes people lose their hair - hair cells divide quickly). Melanoma cells, on the other hand, are not quick dividers so won't respond well to chemotherapy drugs. For this reason, chemo is not considered a suitable treatment for melanoma (although many clinical trials are underway which use chemo, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, other treatments and combinations thereof).

What is a good treatment, then? At the moment, the best option for stage 3 melanoma is good old-fashioned surgery. Cut it out with wide margins of skin, and hope it doesn't come back. If it's metastasised to the lymph nodes, cut them out too.

When melanoma cells break off, travel through the body and set up in, say, the lungs, it is not lung cancer. It is secondary melanoma - that is, the cells that are now growing in the lung are melanoma cells. They behave and respond the same way all melanoma cells do, regardless of where they are. So secondary melanoma in the lungs cannot be treated with chemo, even though lung cancer can be. 

This is why melanoma metastasis tumours are classed as untreatable. It is why so many people die of melanoma. 

And this is why saying "it's just a mole, it's just a skin cancer, thank goodness it's not one of the serious cancers" is woefully ignorant.