Clin Cancer Res: A combination of drug therapies is effective in treating melanoma

December 5, 2020 // -- Researchers at the Hensmey Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah have identified a potential combination of drugs to treat staphylococcal melanoma, an eye cancer.
lead author Amanda Truong of HCI McMahon Labs explains that genetic variants of GNAQ and GNA11 are often found in patients with vine melanoma, the main targets of these drugs.
the study was published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
Martin McMahon, senior director of HCI at www.pixabay.com and professor of dermatology at American University, said: "Vine melanoma is usually a relatively rare cancer, but is the most common eye cancer.
although grape membrane melanoma can be cured when it does not spread beyond the eyes, this form of melanoma has a tendency to metastasy fatally to the liver.
2019, McMahon's lab found that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a combination of quercetone and hydroxychloroquine to stop the growth of pancreatic cancer and other tumors with RAS gene mutations.
truong said: "Because the path of activation of the GNAQ and GNA11 mutations is similar to that of the RAS mutation, we wanted to know if this combination could also be applied to grape membrane melanoma."
" Qumeitini is a targeted inhibitor that blocks THEK protein, which controls cell growth and survival.
hydroxychloroquine is a drug that inhibits autophagy.
autophagy is a cell recovery process that breaks down and destroys old, damaged or abnormal cells or proteins and re-uses them for other cell functions.
results of this study suggest that the simultaneous use of quercetinil and hydroxychloroquine can lead to more vine melanoma cell deaths than drug-only use.
" targeted therapies and immunotherapy work well in patients with skin-induced metastasis melanoma and improve their overall survival.
, these therapies are generally not suitable for eye metastasis melanoma.
urgent need to find a cure for skin metastasis melanoma.
patients with metastasis grape membrane melanoma.
" researchers are working to find more preclinical evidence needed to begin clinical trials of vine melanoma.
() Source: Researchers identifying drug drug for melanoma Source: Amanda Truong. Chloroquine Sensitizes GNAQ/11-mutated Melanoma to MEK1/2 Inhibition. Clin Cancer Res. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-20-1675。