Science Media Centre

A new study from University of Otago researchers suggests banning sunbed services in New Zealand would help reduce skin cancer rates and only have a minimal effect on businesses and jobs. Published today in the New Zealand Medical Journal, the study included a nationwide audit of businesses potentially providing sunbed services. The researchers, Bronwen McNoe and […]

New Zealand has the highest rates of melanoma in the world but the underlying genetic changes behind these cancers vary considerably between the North and South islands, finds a new study. Researchers from the University of Otago analysed the DNA in tumour samples from 529 patients with metastatic melanoma, looking for genes linked to the […]

The Montreal Protocol has prevented a supersized Antarctic ozone hole and a ‘full blown’ Arctic ozone hole, a new study has revealed. Scientists have modelled what the ozone layer would have looked like if ozone-damaging chemicals, known as chloroflurocarbons (CFCs), had not been banned by the 1989 Montreal Protocol. The research, published in Nature Communications this week, has predicted that […]

A new drug that specifically targets cancer cells has shown promising results in phase three clinical trials. A genetically-modified herpes virus injected into tumours of melanoma patients stimulated an immune response to attack cancer cells, according to research published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The virus replicated inside the cancer cells and used the body’s own immune system […]

The front page of today’s Press featured scientists calling on the Ministry of Health to better monitor skin cancers. An excerpt (read in full here): Thousands of lives could be at risk from a skin cancer epidemic, with experts pleading with the Ministry of Health to take action. Non-melanoma skin cancer is estimated to cost […]

Matt Calman writes in the Dominion Post about the development by Canterbury University computer engineer Matt Allen of a UV dosimeter that could help prevent skin cancer. The tiny device can be worn on the skin, and measures the amount of UV radiation being received by its wearer: interested in the dosimeter has come in […]