# Vaccine for melanoma

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-melanoma/732479>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [September 25, 2015, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-melanoma/732479 "2015-09-25T13:46:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![waddlingeagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4da419/32.png) [@waddlingeagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waddlingeagle)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-melanoma/732479/1 "2015-09-25T13:46:39Z")

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re: [Is sunscreen ineffective in preventing skin cancer? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2349/is-sunscreen-ineffective-in-preventing-skin-cancer)

Well, maybe sunscreen isn’t the answer. Or maybe it is. But you can get a vaccine for melanoma in dogs. Why hasn’t one been developed for humans?

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**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2015, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-melanoma/732479/2 "2015-09-25T15:23:49Z")

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Here’s another issue:

> [@](#):
>
> Melanoma was rare before 1950 but subsequently rose to epidemic proportions and now is increasing at a rate of 6 percent annually.

I find it both amusing and perplexing that NOBODY, apparently, thinks – or at least says – anything to indicate that maybe the obvious answer is the correct one. People used to cover up their skin. Men wore pants. Women wore either pants or fairly long skirts, depending on the times, and often wore stockings besides.

Today, however, people expose 50-70% of their skin to the sun on a daily basis for a good part of the year, and virtually everybody thinks, or at least pretends to think, that such a thing is completely consequence-free.

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**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2015, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vaccine-for-melanoma/732479/3 "2015-09-29T19:51:24Z")

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> [@waddlingeagle](#):
>
> re: [Is sunscreen ineffective in preventing skin cancer? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2349/is-sunscreen-ineffective-in-preventing-skin-cancer)
> 
> Well, maybe sunscreen isn’t the answer. Or maybe it is. But you can get a vaccine for melanoma in dogs. Why hasn’t one been developed for humans?

Looking [here](http://www.petcancervaccine.com/vaccine/Pages/works.aspx), the canine melanoma vaccine works by targeting a protein associated with the development of melanoma cells. That protein is present in other cells, but it is especially present in the melanomas. The vaccine uses a human version of the protein to trigger an immune response, but the similarity is often enough that the immune response will attack the canine protein as well.

This is used to treat melanoma, not to prevent it, by the way.

Why not available for humans? [It exists](http://www.webmd.com/melanoma-skin-cancer/news/20090601/vaccine-fights-melanoma).

> [@Flyer](#):
>
> I find it both amusing and perplexing that NOBODY, apparently, thinks – or at least says – anything to indicate that maybe the obvious answer is the correct one. People used to cover up their skin. Men wore pants. Women wore either pants or fairly long skirts, depending on the times, and often wore stockings besides.
> 
> Today, however, people expose 50-70% of their skin to the sun on a daily basis for a good part of the year, and virtually everybody thinks, or at least pretends to think, that such a thing is completely consequence-free.

Cecil did account for it here.

> [@](#):
>
> (2) Increased sunbathing and the thinning ozone layer can’t possibly account for all this. (This is more asserted than proved; I haven’t seen scientific studies making these arguments.)

That is to say, one side seems to assert it but no evidence is presented.