Melanoma

Advanced melanoma can be notoriously resistant to standard immunotherapy, but a new drug combination might hold some hope for patients with this most common form of skin cancer. Professor Emerita of Pharmacology Ann Richmond and her team, in preclinical work, created a “tumor microenvironment more receptive to immune challenge.” The treatment slowed tumor growth, showed stronger immune responses and increased helpful T cells. It could be on a faster-than-typical track to human studies because all the drugs are already involved in other clinical trials. Read More

While 60 percent of people with metastatic melanoma, an aggressive type of skin cancer, have multiple treatment options available to them, roughly 40 percent either do not respond to treatment, or relapse. Read More

A study led by Anna Vilgelm, MD, PhD, and Ann Richmond, PhD, has identified a possible second-line treatment for melanoma patients. Read More

Drug combinations used for the treatment of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and melanoma aren’t as effective as they could be. Oncologists haven’t had the right tools to predict drug interactions, other than in costly clinical trials. That could change with a new algorithm developed by a cross-disciplinary Vanderbilt University team… Read More

A team of Vanderbilt University bioengineers announced a major breakthrough: designing a nanoscale particle that flips on cells' defenses to fight cancer. Read More

Henry Paul and Dave Robbins, members of country music group BlackHawk, as well as southern rock band The Outlaws, recently donated $40,000 to Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) in support of melanoma research. Since 2006, the band members have generated more than $100,000 for VICC. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have discovered that cancer treatment induces an “idling” state for cells, which could promote resistance to treatment. Read More

A novel immunotherapy combination induced remarkable regression of tumors in a mouse model of head and neck cancer. Read More

With the help of a drug formerly used to treat HIV/AIDS, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) have found a way to make melanoma cells more vulnerable to targeted anti-cancer therapy. Read More

Melanoma-specific expression of a certain protein identifies tumors that are more responsive to an immune therapy. Read More

Combining therapies for melanoma that induce cell senescence and that activate the immune response may improve outcomes for patients. Read More

Nearly half of all patients with malignant melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, have a mutation in the BRAF gene found in their tumors. Mutations in the BRAF gene turn on a cancer growth switch known as the MAP kinase pathway. Read More

Melanoma patients whose tumors test positive for mutations in the NRAS gene were more likely to benefit from new immunotherapy drugs, according to a new study led by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) investigators. Read More

Melanoma is the most lethal form of skin cancer, with high mortality rates. While new drugs have been approved to treat the disease, patients nearly always develop resistance to the therapies and the cancer advances. Read More

The activity of a certain factor in immune cells is essential for an anti-tumor response, emphasizing the need to consider the effects of anti-cancer therapies on immune cells. Read More

A Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) melanoma patient is using his passion for golf to support melanoma research efforts at VICC. Read More

New Vanderbilt research suggests patients with advanced melanoma — the most deadly form of skin cancer — could safely benefit from a combination of immunotherapy and targeted therapies aimed at specific gene mutations. Read More

Cancer researchers, led by investigators at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, have identified two novel gene fusions in melanoma that may be responsive to existing cancer therapies. Melanoma is the most deadly form of skin cancer. Read More

Katherine Hutchinson, a third-year graduate student in Cancer Biology at Vanderbilt University, has won a $10,000 Research Scholar Award from the Joanna M. Nicolay Melanoma Foundation. Read More

Combination therapy with two drugs delayed the development of treatment resistance in patients with metastatic melanoma that expresses a specific mutation in the BRAF gene. Read More