Melanoma CoE News

2024

• A first-of-its-kind cellular immunotherapy, called TIL, pioneered at Moffitt Cancer Center is now available for patients with advanced melanoma. It’s the first Food and Drug Administration approval of a cell therapy for solid tumors.
• In a new study published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, Moffitt researchers reveal how the antitumor activity of PTEN suppresses the cancer-promoting activity of the FRA1 transcription factor through the AKT signaling pathway.
• Moffitt researchers, in collaboration with scientists at Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, conducted the largest and most comprehensive study to date on Merkel cell carcinoma. A new study published in Cancer Discovery provides insights into why some Merkel cell carcinoma patients respond to immune checkpoint blockade therapy while others do not.
• A Moffitt study, published in Cell Reports Medicine, uncovers a new mechanism of drug resistance in melanoma leptomeningeal disease, offering new avenues for potential treatments.
• Alex Jaeger, Ph.D., assistant member of the Molecular Oncology Department, received a Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award, the first researcher in Florida and at Moffitt to earn this prestigious grant.
• Dr. MacLean Hall, a Moffitt/USF Immunology and Immunotherapy PhD graduate from the Dr. Shari Pilon-Thomas lab, published a paper entitled, "Neoantigen-specific CD4+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes are potent effectors identified within adoptive cell therapy products for metastatic melanoma patients." It was selected the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (JITC) Best Immune Cell Therapies and Immune Cell Engineering Paper Award of the year.

2023

• Moffitt researchers identified a relatively natural way to increase the numbers and antitumor activities of TILs. In a new article published in Nature Cancer, Dr. Le Lau’s team demonstrates how L-fucose, a nontoxic dietary plant sugar that is enriched in red and brown seaweeds, can increase TILs, promote antitumor immunity and improve the efficacy of immunotherapy.
• In a new article published in Science Translational Medicine, a team of Moffitt researchers, in collaboration with NFlection Therapeutics and researchers at Stanford University, reports the identification of a new drug, NFX-179, that can be applied to the skin and shown to prevent the development of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma in pre-clinical models.
• In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers in the Donald A. Adam Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center of Excellence report on the identification of a cell signaling pathway that regulates the metastatic spread of melanoma cells to the brain.
• The Food and Drug Administration announced the approval of HEPZATO Kit to treat ocular melanoma that has spread to the liver. Moffitt’s Jonathan S. Zager, MD, was the lead international principal investigator on the multinational FOCUS phase 3 clinical trial to test the procedure, which is manufactured by Delcath Systems, Inc.
• In a new study published in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, a team of researchers from the Donald A. Adam Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center of Excellence reveals differences in the mechanisms of action of two FDA-approved immune checkpoint inhibitor combination therapies for advanced melanoma.
• In a new article published in Nature Communications, a team of Moffitt and University of Miami Miller School of Medicine investigators demonstrate that targeting the STING pathway with a combination strategy results in improved antitumor activity.   

2022

• A research article titled "Clinical Outcomes and Risk Stratification of Early-Stage Melanoma Micrometastases From an International Multicenter Study: Implications for the Management of American Joint Committee on Cancer IIIA Disease" was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Congratulations to Moffitt authors, Dr. Vernon Sondak and Dr. Jonathan Zager.
• A research article titled "Therapeutic Value of Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Patients With Melanoma: A Randomized Clinical Trial" was published in JAMA Surgery. SLN biopsy is a standard staging procedure for cutaneous melanoma. Congratulations to Moffitt authors, Dr. Jonathan Zager and Dr. Rogerio Neves.
• Welcome new faculty and Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center of Excellence member, Lilit Karapetyan, MD. Dr. Karapetyan's clinical interest is in melanoma and other skin cancers, including understanding the risk for multiple primary melanomas. Her clinical research is focused on designing immunotherapy trials for patients with early-stage and advanced melanoma. Her translational research is focused on identifying biomarkers for immunotherapy response with a specific interest in the role of tertiary lymphoid structures in affecting this response. Dr. Karapetyan was the recipient of an ASCO Young Investigator Award in 2022.
• Members visited Edinburgh, Scotland, to attend and present at the 19th International Congress of the Society for Melanoma Research (SMR). The SMR is a group of scientists working to find the mechanisms responsible for melanoma development and, consequently, new therapies for this cancer. The SMR contributes to advances in melanoma research by bringing together researchers in a collaborative way to unite the scientific community.
• A research article titled "Ablation of the endoplasmic reticulum stress kinase PERK induces paraptosis and type I interferon to promote anti-tumor T cell responses" featuring Moffitt authors was published in Cancer Cell. Congratulations to all the authors: Jessica Mandula, Shiun Chang, Rachel Jimenez, Rosa Sierra-Mondragon, Darwin Chang, Alyssa Obermayer, Carlos Moran-Segura, Satyajit Das, Julio Vazquez-Martinez, Karol Prieto, Ann Chen, Keiran Smalley, Brian Czerniecki, Peter Forsyth, Brian Ruffell, Timothy Shaw, Jose Conejo-Garcia, and Paulo Rodriguez.
• A team of Moffitt researchers has become the first in the world to visualize the molecular structure of the LAG3 protein. Dr. Vince Luca, a member of the  Drug Discovery Department, presented findings in an article published in Nature Immunology, describing the crystal structure of LAG3 and how it interacts with molecules produced by cancer cells.

2021

• In an article published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers demonstrate how an important defect in STING gene expression in melanoma cells contributes to their evasion from immune cell detection and destruction.
  "These studies show the critical importance of an intact STING pathway in melanomas for optimal T cell immunotherapy success, and how to overcome a notable STING defect in melanoma cases of gene hypermethylation by a combination therapy,” said James J. Mulé, Ph.D., senior author and associate center director for Translational Science at Moffitt. Full story
• Researchers are investigating how to combine and sequence new therapies to improve survival. In a new article published in Cancer Immunology Research, the Moffitt team shows that sequential administration of immunotherapy followed by targeted therapy prolongs anti-tumor responses in preclinical models and may be a potential treatment option for patients. Full story

2020

• A research team, led by Keiran Smalley, Ph.D., director of the Donald A. Adam Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center of Excellence and Peter Forsyth, M.D., Chair of the Department of Neuro-Oncology, hypothesized that the cerebrospinal fluid of LMM patients could impact melanoma cells by modulating their molecular profile. They confirmed this hypothesis by incubating cerebrospinal fluid from the LMM patients with melanoma cells and discovered that the fluid was able to induce activation of proteins and signaling pathways involved in malignant progression, including the PI3K/AKT pathway, integrins, B cell signaling, mitotic cell cycle progression, TNFR, TGF-β and oxidative stress. Full story

2019

• In a new study published in EBioMedicine, researchers with Moffitt Cancer Center’s Donald A. Adam Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center of Excellence reveal that differences at the single-cell level can predict responses to initial BRAF inhibitor therapy, and that leveraging these differences may improve patient outcomes. Full Story
• Using a combination of novel genetic tools, the Tsai and Brown labs are studying how clones of keratinocytes exposed to UV radiation expand and contract over time, forming the basis for skin cancer. Full Story
• Researchers have discovered a mechanism by which melanoma cells become resistant to the commonly used drugs that target the BRAF protein and its signaling pathway. Full Story
• Researchers in the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center of Excellence have discovered a signaling pathway between cytokines and BRAF that promotes tumor growth. Full Story
• Researchers in the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center of Excellence are working to change the prognosis for patients with metastatic uveal melanoma. They have identified a new drug combination that is effective against metastatic uveal melanoma cells in preclinical studies. Their findings were published in Clinical Cancer Research. Full story