Research Corner
* HOPE FOR UVEAL/OCULAR MELANOMA PATIENTS: While skin melanoma is now treated with drugs that boost immune responses, they have not been effective in patients with uveal or ocular melanoma, which arises from the pigment cells of the eye. These patients currently have no treatments that deliver a robust survival benefit. This may be about to change with current trials in the US of IMCgp100 demonstrating durable tumor responses and strong survival rates in patients with advanced uveal melanoma.
* IMPROVING THE ODDS: The newer immunotherapy treatments have been delivering some impressive results, but not for all patients. A team led by Benoit Van den Eynde in Brussels is working on the million dollar question, being: "what can we do to improve the proportion of patients that respond to these treatments?" Van den Eynde states "There are a variety of mechanisms of immune resistance that operate in the tumor. This is what we are addressing in our studies." More information on this can be found here.
*) SURPRISE FINDING IN YOUNG MELANOMAS: Melanoma in young Australian patients aged under 30 has been the focus of studies of Australian Dr James Wilmott. He recently discovered that 90% of all the melanoma DNA mutations in young patients is caused by ultraviolet (UV) radiation-induced damage. Given how young the patients were, some as young as 15 and 16 years of age, this was a surprising finding. "We didn't expect such a high percentage of young patients to have their melanoma caused by UV damage", says Dr Wilmott. "We didn't think enough time had passed to accumulate so much damage in the genes but it goes to show us how dangerous intense intermittent exposure during your early years can be".
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