Melanoma occurrence in outdoor athletes: Cdc25 phosphatases as a promising target

Melanoma represents one of the most aggressive skin tumors, characterized by a low responsiveness to conventional therapies. The most important risk factor for developing malignant melanoma is the exposure to UV rays, because of their genotoxic effect. Outdoor athletes are exposed to considerable solar UV rays and probably have a higher risk to develop skin cancer. Epidemiological studies showed that extreme UV exposure in winter and summer outdoor sports, was associated with an increased prevalence of precancerous skin lesions and melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer. Currently, targeted therapy and immunotherapy are the new standard for melanoma treatment, even though melanoma has a high tendency to relapse, because of acquired drug resistance. Therefore, a great effort has been devoted to discover new molecules helpful in the treatment of this cancer, acting through the modulation of key pathways involved in drugs resistance. CDC25 phosphatases, key regulators of cell cycle and overexpressed in several tumors, represent promising target for anticancer treatment. Hence, the study of the effects of new CDC25 inhibitors in melanoma cells, could be helpful for finding other possible targets for melanoma treatment.