The incidence
of uveal melanoma in Europe follows a gradient from the north to the south: 2 to 8 new cases per one million population, annually.
One hundred and one patients with
metastatic uveal melanoma at 15 centers in the United States and Canada were randomized to receive either selumetinib or standard chemotherapy.
This pathway is activated by mutations in the Gnaq and Gna11 genes, which occur in more than 85 percent of
uveal melanoma patients; 84 percent of patients in this trial had one of the mutations.
«This is the first study to show that a systemic therapy provides significant clinical benefit in a randomized fashion to
advanced uveal melanoma patients, who have very limited treatment options,» said Richard D. Carvajal, MD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan - Kettering and lead author on the study.
In experiments with mice, the UC San Diego - led team showed that verteporfin also suppresses the growth of
uveal melanoma tumors derived from human tumors.
High - risk Melanoma Susceptibility Genes and Pancreatic Cancer, Neural System Tumours, and
Uveal Melanoma across GenoMEL
Scientists have long suspected a genetic association with
uveal melanoma because one of two gene mutations is present in approximately 70 percent of all tumors.
But
uveal melanoma often spreads to the liver, and determining the metastatic status of the disease can be difficult.
Dr. Schwartz and others subsequently demonstrated that inhibition of MEK, a key enzyme in the MAPK pathway, can inhibit the growth of
uveal melanoma cells in the laboratory.
Though uveal melanoma is rare — there are only 2,500 cases diagnosed in the United States each year — about half of patients will develop metastatic disease, and survival for patients with advanced disease has held steady at nine months to a year for decades.
Uveal melanoma does not respond to the drugs given to patients with melanoma on the skin; and, in fact, there is no drug approved specifically for treatment of the disease.
Patients with
uveal melanoma receive surgery to remove the tumor — and in some advanced cases, the entire eye — as well as radiation therapy or chemotherapy.
About 1,500 cases of
uveal melanoma occur in the United States each year, usually among older adults.
Furthermore, this compound displayed promising properties by impairing CXCR4 function in three mouse models: paw inflammation, Matrigel plug angiogenesis, and
uveal melanoma micrometastasis.
While an in - house (MH Stern's team) developed technique (biPAP - PCR) showed exquisite sensitivity for
uveal melanoma mutations (Madic, Clin Cancer Res 2012), we developed other ctDNA techniques (ddPCR and NGS - based techniques).
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In the trial, researchers randomized 98 patients with
metastatic uveal melanoma and administered selumetinib to 47, of which 81 percent had a Gnaq or Gna11 mutation.
«If we can confirm selumetinib's effectiveness in treating
advanced uveal melanoma in this follow - up trial, it will become the standard therapy for this disease, forming a foundation for new drug combinations that could maximize selumetinib's MEK - inhibitor effect,» he said.
Ocular cancers, such
as uveal melanoma or ciliary body adenoma or carcinoma, are another contributing condition to uveitis.
High - risk Melanoma Susceptibility Genes and Pancreatic Cancer, Neural System Tumours, and
Uveal Melanoma across GenoMEL Goldstein et al..
Because of this biological and prognostic importance in cutaneous melanoma, angiotropism was studied
in uveal melanoma (UM).
Research teams focused on both cutaneous and
uveal melanoma are fast - tracking discoveries into the clinical setting, and bringing novel therapeutic options to patients in the Philadelphia region,» said Karen Knudsen, Director of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center.
As with melanoma skin cancer,
uveal melanoma is a malignancy of these melanin - producing cells.
Approximately 2,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with
uveal melanoma each year.
Uveal melanoma (which is biologically distinct from skin melanoma) arises from the uvea's melanocytes, the pigment cells that give the eye its color.
The median survival rate for patients with metastatic
uveal melanoma is 12 months.
Uveal melanoma is a cancer of the iris, ciliary body, or choroid — structures in the eye collectively known as the uvea.
For the first time, a therapy has been found that can delay progression of metastatic
uveal melanoma, a rare and deadly form of melanoma of the eye.
Several years ago, researchers found that 80 percent of patients with
uveal melanoma had mutations to GNAQ or GNA11, genes that activate signals in the mitogen - activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway.
In one of the balancing acts of medicine, the anti-inflammatory action of the drug also increases the risk for other conditions, in this case, a rare form of eye cancer,
uveal melanoma.
Dr. Schwartz thinks that treatment of
uveal melanoma will ultimately involve rational drug design and a combination of drugs, similar to the approach used to combat HIV infection.
The experimental drug selumetinib is the first targeted therapy to demonstrate significant clinical benefit for patients with metastatic
uveal melanoma, according to new Memorial Sloan - Kettering Cancer Center research presented on Saturday, June 1, at the 49th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).